NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's spring now -- does that mean it's finally time for corporate earnings to bloom?

Well, let's not get carried away. But with a little more than a week to go in the current quarter, the earnings outlook is looking pretty good -- or at least not nearly as bad as last spring.

Most companies won't officially report first quarter earnings until April. But many have already told the market what to expect. So far, almost 30 percent of the quarter's earnings preannouncements have been positive and 48 percent were negative, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

Though earnings warnings still outnumber good news, this is shaping up to be much better than last year's brutal first quarter, when 70 percent of preannouncements were negative and only 14 percent were positive.

First Call analyst Ken Perkins says next week will be a crucial one in terms of preannouncements. And as more and more economic data appear to paint a picture of a solidly growing economy in the first quarter (surprisingly strong housing starts numbers for February is the latest bit of evidence), Perkins thinks that there will be several more companies announcing that they will beat earnings expectations.

In addition, there is almost an equal split between upward and downward estimate revisions for the more than 5,200 companies in the First Call database. Forty-eight percent of estimate changes so far this year have been increases and 52 percent have been cuts. Again, that doesn't sound like a statistic to celebrate until you put it into context. At the same time last year, only 37.5 percent of revisions were positive.

And as more companies issue more bullish forecasts, earnings estimates have started to increase in recent weeks. For the two weeks that ended March 15, 51.5 percent of analysts' earnings estimate changes were positive.

Some sectors are benefiting more than others. On the plus side, basic materials continue to look like a solid bet on an emerging economy. To that end, two chemicals companies, Rohm & Haas (ROH: Research, Estimates) and Eastman Chemical (EMN: Research, Estimates), raised their earnings guidance on Tuesday after the closing bell. And Timken (TKR: Research, Estimates), which makes ball bearings and steel alloys, announced on Tuesday morning that it should report earnings of 15 to 20 cents for the quarter. Analysts had been expecting the company to post a loss. Overall, earnings for the basic materials sector are expected to increase 44.4 percent in 2002.

Consumer cyclicals appears to be one of the strongest sectors. The sector, which includes retailers, media, hotels and casinos and other consumer services companies, has held up incredibly well during the economic downturn and shows no signs of slowing down. Consumer confidence remains high, as a new ABC News/Money magazine poll shows.

Nearly half (46 percent) of the first quarter's positive preannouncements came from consumer cyclicals. And this group was the only one with more companies issuing positive guidance than earnings warnings.

In the last few weeks, luxury good retailerCoach (COH: Research, Estimates) and cruise line operator Royal Caribbean (RCL: Research, Estimates) said they would beat estimates for the latest quarter. So did newspaper publishers McClatchy (MNI: Research, Estimates) and E.W. Scripps (ESS: Research, Estimates). And in the retail area, home improvement chain Lowe's (LOW: Research, Estimates), women's apparel retailer Ann Taylor (ANN: Research, Estimates), and video game store Electronics Boutique (ELBO: Research, Estimates) all raised their earnings guidance for the current quarter. Earnings for the whole sector are expected to increase more than 24 percent in 2002.

Unfortunately, the earnings estimate and preannouncement data for tech hints at continued tough times for the downtrodden sector. Although analysts are predicting a solid 41.9 percent gain in earnings for the year, this estimate is down from the projection of 46.4 percent growth earlier in the year. And more than twice as many tech companies have issued earnings warnings for the first quarter than raised guidance.

Mercury Computer (MRCY: Research, Estimates) became the latest tech earnings warning casualty, plunging more than 14 percent on Wednesday after announcing that it would miss estimates for this quarter by a wide margin. Mercury has plenty of company. Lucent (LU: Research, Estimates), Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates), and Ciena (CIEN: Research, Estimates) are just a few of the more prominent large cap tech companies to recently issue earnings warnings for this quarter.