Exxon's 2nd Quarter$10 B profit

[TheHipHopBillGates]

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com....aspx?GT1=8380

Exxon's $10B profit

Exxon made more than $10 billion but an 85-point gain for the Dow shrivels to a 2-point loss. Aetna plunges as it forecasts higher medical costs. New home sales slip, hurting builders such as Pulte. Durable goods orders rise sharply.

ExxonMobil (XOM, news, msgs) earned more than $10 billion in the second quarter as high oil prices continue to swell the bottom lines of big oil companies.

Shares of the company rose 0.17%, but the overall stock markets' morning rally disappeared by the end of the day. A report of strong durable goods orders last month was offset by worries about Middle East tensions, consumer optimism and the effect of higher energy costs on manufacturing companies.

The Dow Jones industrials closed down 2.08 points to 11,100, after being up more than 85 points. The Nasdaq Composite index saw an early gain of as much as 23 points turn into a loss of nearly 16 points, or 0.7%, at 2,054. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 5.2 points to 1,263.

Concern about Dow component Microsoft's (MSFT, news, msgs)prospects sapped the blue-chip average, Briefing.com said. Microsoft, the publisher of MSN Money, was down nearly 2%.

The software giant was holding an analyst day at its Redmond, Wash. headquarters.

There was great interest on when Windows Vista, the next version of the core Microsoft operating system will ship. Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services unit, insisted he sees no impediment to releasing the software early next year. But Johnson, the first non-engineer to lead the Windows group, reiterated that Microsoft will not ship the product until it is ready and free of bugs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

* CNBC video: Jim Goldman reports from the Microsoft analyst meeting.

Exxon's earnings: Only the second-biggest quarterly profit ever
Exxon reported a profit of $10.36 billion for the second three months of the year, or $1.72 per share, up from $7.64 billion, or $1.20 per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates forecast a second-quarter profit of $1.64 per share.

The earnings were shy of Exxon's own record quarterly profit of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Putting it into perspective, Exxon earned $114 million per day in the second quarter. That's $79,000 per minute or $1,300 per second.

But the company's quarterly revenues, up to $99 billion from $88.6 billion in the same quarter a year ago, fell short of the consensus estimate of more than $111 billion. One reason for the shortfall could be an accounting change that went into effect in 2006 which lowered revenue, CNBC's Joe Kernen reported.

Exxon's huge profit indicates that oil companies' profits will remain at staggering levels as long as global demand for oil stays strong and oil prices remain at lofty levels.

Indeed, crude oil moved higher today, closing at $74.54 a barrel in New York, ujp 60 cents from yesterday, thanks in part to worried that Middle Eastern tensions aren't declining.

* CNBC Poll: Should the government tax oil profits?
* Columnist Bob Walberg thinks oil stocks deserve more respect.
* Earlier this month, MSN Money columnist Jim Jubak added ExxonMobil into his Jubak's Picks list. Read why.

Energy prices -- New York close Thur. Wed. Chg. Month chg. YTD chg.
Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel) $74.54 $73.94 $0.6000 0.83% 22.12%
Heating oil (per gallon) $2.2960 $2.0275 $0.0248 16.89% 32.87%
Natural gas (per million BTU) $7.0420 $6.8870 $0.1550 15.37% -37.27%
Unleaded gasoline (per gallon) $2.2960 $2.2962 -$0.0002 4.32% 34.27%

New home sales off; Pulte sees new orders fall
Shortly after the opening bell, the Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell 3% to an annual rate of 1.13 million units. Economists expected a smaller drop to a pace of 1.16 million units.

The median price of a new home in June fell 1.5% from the month before to $321,300.
Stock Charts (Year)
Pulte Homes
Graphical chart for PHM
"It's a buyers market," Pulte Homes CEO Richard Lucas conceded on CNBC's "Closing Bell."

What had been hot markets -- like Florida -- are weakening, and buyers are holding back on making purchases, negotiating deals more carefully or cancelling sales entirely. The result is that a lot of inventory is hitting markets, he said. Pulte reported today that net income fell 19% in the second quarter to 94 cents a share. Revenue was up 3.3% at $3.36 billion. New home orders were down about 30% from a year ago. The stock was down nearly 3%.

Durable goods orders robust in June
Wall Street worries about a sharp economic slowdown were soothed this morning after the government reported a sharp rise in June orders for durable goods.

Orders for goods lasting three-or-more years rose 3.1%, the Commerce Department reported, compared with a revised 0.3% rise the month before and well ahead of economists' expectations for a 2.3% gain.

Excluding transportation, orders for long-lasting goods rose 1% in June, ahead of expectations for a 0.7% rise.

But all signs of economic strength are a double-edged sword these days, as long-term interest rates rose chances of an August interest rate rise climbed to 49%, based on fed funds futures contracts, Reuters reported.

"It don't think the (Federal Reserve) is going to hold (in August)," Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economist, told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I think the economy's moving ahead and the Fed's got an inflation problem to deal with and they're going to be raising rates."

Aetna plunges, Dow Chemical struggles
HMO Aetna (AET, news, msgs) plunged more than 19% after the company reported lighter-than-expected quarterly revenues and said it sees medical costs rising throughout the year.
Stock Charts (Year)
Aetna
Graphical chart for AET
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Graphical chart for BMY
Aetna now predicts revenues of $1.605 billion to $1.617 billion, down from $1.622 billion to $1.634 billion and the concerns about its medical cost ratio took the entire sector lower.

Aetna's report whacked all the stocks in the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors Index (HMO). The index was down nearly 5.2% on the day. Twelve of 13 health plan stocks tracked by MSN Money were down on the day.

In addition:

* Dow Chemical (DOW, news, msgs) sank 10% after the company reported second-quarter earnings of 10 cents per share, 15 cents below the Reuters Estimates consensus. The chemical company said it will be hard to meet its goal of growing earnings in 2006, Briefing.com reported. The world's second-largest chemical company said energy costs for the quarter were up $800 million from a year ago.
* Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY, news, msgs) lost more than 7.5% after announcing it was the target of a criminal antitrust probe about a patent litigation settlement with a generic competitor over blood thinner Plavix.
* Bear Stearns downgraded FedEx (FDX, news, msgs) to "peer perform" from "outperform," citing a slow macroeconomic quarter. Earlier this week, competitor United Parcel Service (UPS, news, msgs) warned that it see a moderating economy. FedEx shares fell 4.5%.

Short hits from the markets -- 4 p.m. Thur. Wed. Chg. Month chg. YTD chg.
Treasurys
13-week Treasury bill 4.95% 4.97% -0.15 1.95% 24.34%
5-year Treasury note yield 4.98% 4.98% -0.02 -2.26% 14.42%
10-year Treasury note yield 5.04% 5.04% 0.04 -1.91% 14.68%
30-year Treasury bond yield 5.11% 5.10% 0.11 -1.45% 12.40%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index 85.63 85.66 -0.030 0.92% -5.86%
British pound in dollars $1.86 $1.86 0.004 0.48% 8.30%
Dollar in British pounds £0.54 £0.54 -0.001 -0.48% -7.53%
Euro in dollars $1.27 $1.27 -0.002 -0.74% 7.45%
Dollar in euros € 0.7874 € 0.7861 0.001 0.74% -6.94%
Dollar in yen ¥115.76 ¥116.34 -0.580 1.19% -1.79%
Commodities
Gold $632.50 $621.90 $10.60 2.68% 21.89%
Copper $3.48 $3.45 $0.0290 0.46% 60.93%
Silver $11.39 $11.08 $0.31 5.14% 28.12%
Crude oil (NYMEX) (per barrel) $74.54 $73.94 $0.60 0.83% 22.12%

-- Charley Blaine and Kim Khan

[ShaE]

I know a lot of their profit is from sources outside the US, but it really is a tough pill to swallow. Ridiculous profits like that, while citizens are paying through the fucking nose for gas and energy in general. Mind you, if they started to go belly up, the gov't would bail them out via corporate "welfare"....who bails out the people?? What does the working class paying for all this shit get when we struggle? Nothing.

So much is out of hand. Our con ed bill this month was so fucking insane, my father made an appt for the guy to come and read the meter IN FRONT of him and explain it lol