Earnings, excluding special items, rose 14 percent, to $172 million.

Excluding one-time items, profit rose to $54.8 million, an increase of 1.6 percent over a year earlier.

Excluding extraordinary and special items, earnings from operations were $2.58 per share.

Analysts predicted a loss of $4.76 a share excluding special items.

Northwest also performed worse than expected, losing $5.07 a share, excluding special items.

Excluding the gain and other items, net income rose 14 percent, to $34 million.

Excluding special items, profit in the period a year earlier was $85.8 million, or 48 cents a share.

Excluding special items, Enron's net income rose by 49.3 percent.

However, excluding one-time items, operating income would have been up about 17 percent.

Excluding one-time items, Sun lost $99 million, or 3 cents a share.