Revenue up 11 percent and profit down 11 percent? Thank goodness!

American Express eased concerns about financial stocks not by posting earnings growth, but by beating analysts' gloomy estimates of even worse shrinkage in the first quarter.

The credit card issuer said it earned $974 million in the first three months, down 11 percent from $1.1 billion in the same period last year. Revenue rose to $7.2 billion from $6.5 billion a year ago. Earnings per share slipped 7 percent, to 84 cents a share.

Just by not being as bad as expected, American Express' earnings "left investors feeling again that this may be more of a bottom than the start of an accelerating crisis," Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management, told Reuters.

"There is the feeling we are coming to the latter innings of this crisis," Meckler said. "It really seems like investor confidence is back."