Despite the debt crisis in Europe, unrest in the Middle East and the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, leading US companies are turning in unexpectedly encouraging results.
A blitz of fresh quarterly results has hit news desks in the last few days, many of which are surprisingly good.
McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, saw profits rise 15 percent after increased global sales. Net profit for the three months ending 30 June 2011 rose to $1.41 billion, compared with $1.23 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales increased 5.9 percent in Europe, 4.5 percent in the US, and 5.2 percent in the rest of the world.
Coca-Cola reported last week a 47 percent increase in sales and an 18 percent rise in profits.
In the same quarter, US technology giant Microsoft reported record final quarter revenues of $17.37 billion, boosted by the Xbox videogame console and Office software sales. Annual revenues hit a record $64.94 billion, with net income for the year shooting up 23 percent to $23.15 billion.
Apple, Google and IBM have also reported strong results recently.
On the industrial front, GE reported an 18 percent increase in second quarter profits, with GE Capital improving as it writes more profitable loans and helping to compensate for tighter profit margins at GE Energy.
Reporting last Friday, Caterpillar came up short of forecasts for the first time in nearly three years, hit more than most by the situation in Japan, and also by integration costs from the acquisition of Bucyrus. Nevertheless, second quarter revenues still increased 37 percent to $14.2 billion and net income rose 44 percent to $1.02 billion.
Only time will tell if the companies concerned have turned in outstanding performances, or whether analysts were over pessimistic in forecasting this quarter’s results.
Chicken or egg; what do you think?
