For Investors: Earnings Reports (3Q10) -- Recession? What Recession?

Bakken oil companies will report:

• MRO: earnings double; 
• WLL: earnings soar; presentation; conference call 11:00 EST on 10/28
• HES: net income more than triples; 10/27 -- conference call
• MDU: earnings down 34% on construction; conference call
• BEXP: Nov 1
• CLR 11/03 ac; conference call 11/04
• DNR, Seeking Alpha; and  BEXP on 11/4 
• EOG and KOG, 11/4; KOG PDF presentation; EOG PDF presentation
• NOG 11/8  -- conference call at 10:00 CST, same day
• OAS 11/8 earnings announcement, Seeking Alpha; PDF presentation
• COP: earnings doubled
• XOM: earnings up 55%
• CVX: earnings fall 1.6%; conference call
• ERF: presentation;  
• ENB: income cut in half due to spills

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So, which is it? A recession or not a recession? I still maintain that we are in a recession, see recent posts.

However, I have been a bit sarcastic about all the negativity presented by politicians and "talking heads" when it comes to the economy. If one only listened to mainstream media, one would get the impression there is no good news in the private sector. Back in July I posted the earnings reports as they were announced.

This is interesting. On September 30, 2010, on national television (CNBC), Daimler-Benz CEO said the folks that make Mercedes Benz will have the best September in the history of their company, worldwide and in the US. 

So, here we go again (I will only be printing the positive news; it's easy to find the negative news elsewhere).  Third quarters earnings season doesn't start until next month (right now we're in the "warnings season"), but some companies will report early.

3rd Quarter, 2010, Earnings , Selected

• Nike: earnings $1.45, vs $1.01; blows away expectations
• Walgreens: earnings up 8 percent (their 4th quarter)
• CSX: earnings jump 43%, beating expectations, and well above year-over-year 
• INTC: earnings up 59% 
• JPM: analysts' expectation -- 88 cents; actual -- $1.10 (who says the banks are in trouble?) 
• GOOG: earnings up 32% 
• Hasbro, as in toys, earnings up 3%, in a recession? 
• Halliburton: earnings double, on natural gas drilling 
• Citigroup, a BANK, beats estimates, worst is over? 
• Bank of America: earnings, 27 cents; expectations, 16 cents. 
• Altria: beats expectations by 2 cents; 54 cents vs 42 cents yoy
• McDonalds: $1.29 vs $1.15 a year ago; beats expectations
• Caterpillar: $1.22 vs $0.64 one year ago; slow economy 
• United Airlines: $1.75 this quarter; lost money one year ago; all airlines soaring
• UPS: 3rd quarter earnings soared, up 81% (hey, how's the US Postal Service doing -- still losing money. I check my mailbox once a week; today -- no first class mail; only election advertising, and local grocery market circulars; all junk mail -- all representing last four days of mail
• SanDisk (flash memory): earnings soar, $1.30 vs $1.05 last year; beats expectations
• SLB soars: $1.38 vs $0.65 last quarter. Transcript of earnings call. 
• DreamWorks Animation (movies): earnings double 
• Norfolk Southern: earnings soar; up 47% 
• Visa: earnings up 51% as credit card usage increases 
• Shell: earnings up 6% on higher oil prices 
• Toyota profit quadruples despite recall 
• Dell: earnings double --- Dell? Doubled? What recession?

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My Prayer, The Platters

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Speaking of "seasons," there are four seasons in Texas: football regular season, play-off and champion season,  recruiting season, and training season.

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Luxury Sales: back to pre-crisis levels

September auto sales:

• GM sales down
• Ford sales up 46% over September one year ago
• Daimler-Benz has near all-time September record sales

GM is owned by the unions and the US govt; worse performance a coincidence? I think not.