Corporate earnings stumble as financial storm blows across U.S.
The biggest loser was distressed bank Wachovia Corp., which was recently taken over by Wells Fargo & Co.
The financial institution, whose valuation melted away in the past two months after writing off billions in investments in asset-backed commercial paper, lost a jaw-dropping $24 billion US in the third quarter once restructuring charges are included.
Forgetting about those one-time costs, however, Wachovia still gushed $4.8 billion in red ink in the quarter.
Those results compared unfavourably with the same time last year, when Wachovia earned $1.62 billion.
Analysts, even faced with all of Wachovia's challenges, had still expected the North Carolina-based bank to earn $547 million.
Mixed drugsNew Jersey-based drugmaker Merck & Co. said it was cutting 7,200 jobs.
The company posted earnings down more than 25 per cent at $1.09 billion compared with the same time last year, when Merck made $1.53 billion.
Merck said restructuring costs were a big reason for the lower income figure.
Three month stock chart for WyethWyeth managed to maintain its profits at $1.22 billion in the third-quarter, basically flat compared to $1.23 billion for the same three-month period one year earlier.
Still, Wyeth said it would delay the rollout of a new Alzheimer's drug following mixed results in early trials.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC saw its net income dip by 1.8 per cen,t still beating analysts' expectations by six per cent. The drugmaker made $2.1 billion for the quarter and said it is on the hunt for takeover bargains.
McDonalds' beatsAfter falling 15 per cent in the past month, McDonalds' stock may deserve a break.
The world's biggest hamburger seller beat analysts' expectations and boosted its net income by 11 per cent to $1.19 billion in the period.
McDonald's earned $1.05 a share versus Wall Street predictions of 98 cents.
Perhaps surprisingly, people were not buying as many tissues in the quarter, driving down profits at paper giant Kimberly-Clark Corp.
The company, which gets 20 per cent of its total business from the sale of Kleenex and other tissue products, earned $413 million in the latest three month period, down nine per cent from $453 million for the same period last year.
Heavyweights stumbleChicago-based aircraft maker Boeing Inc., absorbed a month-long strike in the quarter and saw its profit slide to just under $700 million in the third quarter, from $1.11 billion last year.
AT&T Inc. made more money in the quarter but missed expectations, both because of its introduction of Apple's wildly successful iPhone.
The telecommunications giant earned $3.23 billion, an increase of 5.5 per cent from $3.06 billion in the third-quarter of 2008 versus third-quarter of '07.
Wall Street, however, was expecting a gain of 71 cents a share and was disappointed as AT&T's per-share profit clocked in at only 67 cents.
Soaring iPhone sales actually hurt AT&T's short-term profit picture since the company subsidizes new users initially as a way of getting subscribers on the network.
0 comments:
Post a Comment