Strong earnings for the second quarter of this year are driving analysts to boost estimates and signal a strong third quarter, too, National Bank Financial says in a new report.

NBF chief strategist Clément Gignac notes that the coming week is a busy one for earnings, with 170 companies of the S&P 500 are due to release their numbers for Q2. Gignac reports says the data released so far, for 84 members of the index, is generally very good. “Profits are up 21% year-over-year for the S&P 500, companies are beating estimates by 4.1% (versus long-term average 3%) and the ratio of negative-to-positive pre-announcements, at 0.9, remains at an all-time low,” he says.

As a result, Gignac says that analysts are busy revising their earnings estimate upward. “In fact, earnings revisions in the three months through July are the strongest on record.”

Gignac predicts that revisions are likely to remain in positive territory because economic momentum is still relatively strong. “On that note, we were encouraged by the release of regional surveys last week (New-York and Philadelphia) pointing to a rebound in U.S. manufacturing activity in July.”