LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The housing market remains the Achilles heel of the recovery.”
M. Cary Leahey,
a senior economist at Decision Economics Article, 1D
Whirlpool profit more than doubles
CHICAGO - Whirlpool Corp.’s second-quarter net income more than doubled as it cut costs and benefited from shoppers taking advantage of federal rebates to buy appliances. But worries about whether it can keep it up gave investors jitters.
The results topped Wall Street expectations and prompted the world’s largest appliance maker Tuesday to boost its full-year outlook.
The company cautioned that its momentum will likely slow in the coming months as the benefit from U.S. subsidies erodes. That drove shares down $2.66, or 3 percent, to close at $88.70.
Whirlpool, which makes its namesake brand along with Maytag, KitchenAid and Jenn-Air products, earned $205 million, or $2.64 per share, during the three months that ended on June 30. Excluding certain one-time items, that figure is $2.82.
In the same period last year the company earned $78 million, or $1.04 per share.
Revenue rose 9 percent to $4.53 billion, up from $4.17 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $2.17 per share on revenue of $4.50 billion. The company operates a refrigerator-manufacturing plant in Fort Smith.
Apple says net income jumps 78%
SEATTLE - Apple Inc. beat expectations when reporting results Tuesday for its latest quarter, selling almost as many of its new iPad tablets as it sold Mac computers.
Apple said net income rose 78 percent to $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per share, from $1.8 billion, or $2.01 per share a year ago.
Revenue for the April-June period rose 61 percent from last year to $15.7 billion, making it the company’s highest quarterly revenue.
That’s better than Wall Street expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast net income of $3.11 per share on $14.7 billion in revenue.
Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones, up 61 percent from last year, even though the company stopped shipping more of the previous-generation iPhones after the updated model, the iPhone 4, was announced in early June. Apple sold 1.7 million of the newest iPhone 4 during the last three days of the quarter.
Apple also said it sold about 3.3 million iPads in the gadget’s first three months on the market.
For the current quarter, Apple said it expects to earn $3.44 per share on $18 billion in revenue. Apple said it will wait until the October-December quarter to recognize about $175 million. That’s related to the free cases Apple pledged to give iPhone 4 buyers to alleviate a reception issue.
Airlines’ payrolls in May down 2.7%
NEW YORK - U.S. airlines’ work forces shrank by 2.7 percent in May from a year earlier, the government said Tuesday, marking the 23rd straight month in which airline employment has declined.
U.S. airlines have laid off thousands of workers in the past year as the economy sputtered. They’re also shifting more jobs outside the U.S. where labor is cheaper.
Scheduled passenger airlines employed 377,000 workers in May, 10,500 less than a year ago.
The May figures are the latest government statistics available, but more recent data from the airlines show the industry is continuing to shrink.
Airlines are hesitant to start hiring despite the improving economy, choosing instead to build up cash reserves. Delta said Monday that it now has $6 billion in cash, up one-third from a year ago. United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said its cash doubled to $5.17 billion from a year earlier.
The total number of full-time Delta employees fell 1.3 percent from a year ago to 81,916 at the end of June. Delta said it will hire more airport customer service and reservations agents.
UAL finished the second-quarter with 42,600 full-time equivalent employees, 2.7 percent lower than a year earlier.
The government counts two part-time employees as one full-time worker.
Six airlines - United, American, Delta, Continental, US Airways and Alaska - together employ about two-thirds of all scheduled passenger airline employees.
Mortgage-aid program exits top 40%
WASHINGTON - The number of people dropping out of the Obama administration’s main program to help those at risk of losing their homes outstripped those who received aid for the second-straight month.
The Treasury Department says about 530,000 borrowers have dropped out of the program as of last month. That’s more than 40 percent of the nearly 1.3 million enrolled since March 2009. It’s a sign that foreclosures could rise and weaken an ailing housing market.
Treasury Department officials say few of these borrowers will wind up in foreclosure. But many analysts still fear a new wave of foreclosures will weaken the housing market.
An additional 390,000 homeowners, or 30 percent of those who started the program, have received permanent loan modifications and are making payments on time.
Greek debt sale 2nd before IMF visit
ATHENS, Greece - Greece raised $2.53 billion in a debt auction Tuesday, passing its second market test in a week ahead of a key fiscal checkup by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
The country’s Public Debt Management Agency said the sale of 13-week Treasury bills - originally for $1.5 billion - was oversubscribed by 3.85 times at an interest rate of 4.05 percent, higher than the 3.65 percent it had to pay for an April issue of such bills.
The sale came a week after Greece tapped the market for the first time since receiving joint EU and IMF rescue loans, selling $1.625 billion in 26-week bills at a 4.65 percent yield.
Debt-ridden Greece narrowly avoided bankruptcy in May and was pledged up to $110 billion in rescue loans from the IMF and the 15 other EU countries using the euro.
In an interim report Friday, the IMF cited progress in Greece’s ambitious rescue overhaul. But inspectors from the fund, the EU and the European Central Bank are due back in Athens on Monday for a fiscal inspection required before Greece gets its second loan installment in mid-September.
Athens secured the loans after imposing tough austerity measures, cutting civil-service pay and overhauling of its pension and labor systems.
Angry unions responded with a series of strikes and protests. Doctors at state-run hospitals are on a five-day strike through Friday to protest plans to revamp the National Health Service.
Business, Pages 26 on 07/21/2010