Mr. Kane was brought in three months ago to revive flagging profits.

This recovery in particular might be far kinder to employers than employees, reviving sales and profits but leaving many people jobless.

Market analysts said investors were now waiting for the Fed's interest rate cuts to show some results in reviving the economy and corporate profits.

They are part of Sears's strategy, begun in February, to revive sagging profits and market share.

And reviving profits is as essential to Disney these days as regaining its storied reputation.

Still struggling to revive profits, businesses have reacted to the drop in confidence and a potential war in Iraq by making a new round of cutbacks.

But analysts warned that the stock gains would evaporate if those efforts did not in time revive corporate profits.

Alcoa said last week that it planned to shrink its global smelting capacity by 12pc in an effort to revive profits as prices decline.

But they warned that the stock gains could evaporate if the Fed's efforts did not ultimately revive corporate profits.

Prices rose on the major exchanges as investors seemed to conclude that corporate America, in cutting labor costs, was acting quickly to revive profits.