ATLANTA ( TheStreet) -- Newell Rubbermaid ( NWL - Get Report) said second-quarter earnings rose 23% on strong demand from Latin America and emerging markets.

Newell Rubbermaid, the consumer products maker, said net income was $130.4 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with earnings of $105.7 million, or 37 cents, the prior year. On an adjusted or "normalized" basis, second-quarter earnings were 51 cents; analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 44 cents a share.

Sales in the quarter were $1.5 billion, down 0.5% from the same period a year earlier. Analysts expected sales of $1.52 billion.

Newell Rubbermaid said core sales growth was almost 4%, a result of a "a combination of market share gains and distribution wins as well as strong consumer demand in Latin American and developing markets in EMEA."

The company also said it "generated significant improvement in gross margin this quarter driven by productivity gains and improved product mix."

Newell Rubbermaid continues to expect 2010 net sales growth in the low to mid single-digit range, but it raised its expectations for core sales growth to mid single digits, as compared previous guidance of growth in the with low to mid single digits.

Newell Rubbermaid raised its guidance for 2010 normalized earnings to $1.40 to $1.50 a share; analysts forecast 2010 earnings of $1.47 a share.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.

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