The Goal of the Corporate State (the Government and Its Corporate Allies) Is to Have Total Control of Everything
Dow Rises After Strong Corporate Earnings
April 29, 2011AP – The Dow Jones industrial average rose in early trading Friday after more strong earnings reports from major U.S. companies. Broader indexes were mixed.
Merck & Co., Chevron Corp. and Caterpillar Inc. beat earnings forecasts for the first quarter. All three are among the 30 companies that make up the Dow average.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. rose 12 percent, the most of any company in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, after it set a company sales record and reversed its loss from the first quarter of last year.
Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, rose 3 percent after its earnings rose more than five-fold. The company also raised its sales and profit outlook for the year.
"The industrial sector and the manufacturing sector of this country are much stronger than many investors have perceived," said Rob Lutts, president and chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management.
D.R. Horton Inc. also reported a surprisingly strong profit, sending the homebuilder's stock up 2 percent. The company said its profit more than doubled mostly because of a large tax benefit.
The Dow rose 18, or 0.2 percent, to 12,782 in morning trading. The index is on track to have its best month since December. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell less than a point to 1,360. The Nasdaq composite index fell 8, or 0.3 percent, to 2,865.
Microsoft Corp. sank 4 percent. The software maker reported late Thursday that revenues from its Windows operating system fell 4 percent from the same time last year.
Bond prices were flat. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged at 3.32 percent from late Thursday.
Merck Q1 Net Income Triples on Lower Costs
April 29, 2011AP - Merck & Co. on Friday said its first-quarter profit more than tripled as strong sales of key drugs and lower costs from integrating its Schering-Plough acquisition offset sales lost to competition from generic versions of its drugs.
The results beat Wall Street expectations. Merck's stock rose 61 cents in premarket trading to $36.38.
The maker of Singulair for asthma and allergies and Januvia for diabetes says net income was $1.04 billion, or 34 cents per share, up from $299 million, or 9 cents a share, in 2010's first quarter.
Revenue edged up 1 percent to $11.58 billion. That includes several billion dollars from products acquired when Merck bought Schering-Plough Corp. in November 2009 for $49 billion.
Excluding numerous one-time items, net income was $2.86 billion, or 92 cents per share.
Analysts forecast earnings per share of 84 cents and revenue of $11.38 billion. Analysts typically exclude one-time items in their estimates.
The $1.82 billion in net charges included $1.58 billion in merger-related writedowns on the value of assets and research, $126 million in restructuring costs and a $500 million payment to settle arbitration with Johnson & Johnson over rights to two drugs. A year ago, Merck had charges totaling $2.31 billion.
Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., raised the bottom end of its 2011 adjusted profit forecast by 2 cents, predicting $3.66 to $3.76 per share. Including charges, it expects $2.04 to $2.39 per share this year.
"We're very much committed to growth and we think we're off to a terrific start in the first quarter," Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier told analysts during a conference call. "The steps we are taking are paying off."
Merck shares rose 7 cents to $35.84 in early trading.
Frazier noted the company got double-digit sales growth from key products, "combined with deliberate cost control measures across all areas of the company as we continue to create a more effective and efficient operating model."
Production costs were down 22 percent at $4.06 billion, partly because Merck has sold some of the two companies' factories.
Caterpillar's 1Q Profit Soars, Boosts Forecast
Caterpillar Inc. is the bulldozer manufacturer that President Barack Obama used to help push his $787 billion stimulus plan. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens, 63, is a member of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Obama visited the Peoria, Illinois, headquarters on February 12, 2009, the final day of his campaign to press for Congressional passage. - How’s the stimulus working out for Caterpillar?, Michelle Malkin, April 21, 2009Caterpillar Inc. of Illinois announced nearly 2,400 layoffs despite President Obama using his home state’s company as an example of a struggling manufacturer that would benefit from his economic stimulus plan and save jobs. The new round of job cuts will span five plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia, and follows the January news that Caterpillar would slash 22,000 people from its 112,000-person workforce. Mr. Obama hosted an event in support of his stimulus plan at the company’s Peoria, Ill., headquarters in mid-February, saying the $787 billion stimulus would be “a major step forward on our path to economic recovery.” - Caterpillar slashes jobs despite stimulus, Washington Times, March 17, 2009
April 29, 2011
AP – Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. said Friday its first-quarter profit soared more than five-fold as a growing economic recovery boosted demand for the company's mining and construction equipment.
The results blew past analysts' expectations and it boosted its outlook for the year. Its shares rose $3.06, or 2.7 percent, to $115.70 in morning trading.
Caterpillar's earnings are a bellwether for the global economy, as it sells the kind of kind of expensive, heavy machinery used for construction, mining and logging.
Its first-quarter profits reflect an industrial sector that is growing again, with most of its sales growth coming from the sale of big machines.
The Peoria, Ill., based company said its net income climbed to a record $1.23 billion, or $1.84 per share, for the quarter ended March 31. That's up from $233 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 57 percent to $12.95 billion from $7.55 billion a year ago.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.30 a share on revenue of $11.43 billion.
Revenue at Caterpillar's machinery and power systems division surged to $12.29 billion from $7.55 billion during the same period last year.
"We expect that the pace of world economic growth will support continued recovery in the key industries we serve," CEO Doug Oberhelman said in a statement.
Based on its higher-than-expected sales, Caterpillar boosted its 2011 outlook, forecasting revenue between $52 to $54 billion and net income between $6.25 and $6.75 per share. It previously forecast revenue above $50 billion and net income of roughly $6 per share. The company said its projection does not include its recent acquisitions of MWM Holding GmbH or Bucyrus International, Inc. because the deals haven't closed yet.
Caterpillar said its outlook would have been higher if not for the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which damaged many of its suppliers. Supply disruptions and delays will likely cost the company $300 million on lost sales and $100 million in lost profit.
Flashback: After Laying Off 22,000 U.S. Workers and Then Receiving Stimulus Funds from U.S. Taxpayers, Caterpillar Plans to Install Factory in China
At a Caterpillar Inc. plant in Peoria, Ill., today, President Obama said that his proposed economic stimulus would allow the company's CEO to rehire recently laid-off employees. But the head of the company said he will have to fire more workers before he can rehire anyone who has been let go. Obama has said twice in the past two days that Caterpillar CEO James Owens indicated his company would be able to rehire some of the 20,000 recently laid-off employees. "Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off," Obama said today in Peoria. But when asked today if the stimulus could do that, Owens said, "I think, realistically, no. The honest reality is we're probably going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again." - CEO Contradicts Obama on Rehiring Employees, ABC News, February 12, 2009
Legislators have been bleeding the next two generations of Americans dry by pouring money into corporations that are building in overseas locations to avoid paying taxes while “those of us making $250,000 less” get to choose our government-run health insurance and ain’t none of us paying one thin dime more according to TPTB. Yeah – that’s a huge run-on sentence, but I am just that upset! - What Stimulus Money Did For Caterpiller- But at What Cost to The American Taxpayer?, The PPJ Gazette, September 29, 2010
September 29, 2010
Construction will begin in Wujiang, near Shanghai, at the end of 2010 and the facility should be ready in 2012 to begin production of mini excavators of less than eight tons, the company said Tuesday.
Caterpillar did not say how much the project will cost.
It is part of a long-term plan for investments in China that will make Caterpillar one of the leading manufacturers of construction equipment in the country.
"China is the world's largest market for excavators in the below eight ton class, and the development of this new facility will better position Caterpillar to provide our customers in China with solutions that will help them succeed," said Mary Bell, a Caterpillar vice president.Caterpillar already has a factory in Xuzhou, which is also near Shanghai.
The company, which is headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, had sales and revenue of 32.4 billion dollars in 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment