Los Angeles Times (November 25)
“Retailers are waging a war on Thanksgiving.” This “traditional day of family gatherings and relaxation is dying at the hands of those who can’t wait even six hours to reach into our pockets in order to line their own.” More and more retailers are opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving. They “seem to feel Thanksgiving is just an inconvenient speed bump on the road to Christmas profits.”
Tags: Christmas, Family, Gatherings, Profits, Relaxation, Retailers, Thanksgiving
Reuters (November 18)
“Japan’s attempts, through Abenomics, to beat back against the tide of demographics may be proving futile.” Though the country may be able to keep printing money, Japan “can’t print people.” Cheap funding won’t stimulate corporate investment unless companies “see both a strong outlook for profits and for market growth,” something that remains unlikely amidst an aging, shrinking population.
Tags: Abenomics, Aging, Corporate investment, Demographic, Funding, Japan, Market growth, Outlook, Population, Profits
Washington Post (December 12, 2013)
Manufacturing has bounced back in the U.S. since the Great Recession, rising each year since 2010. “Profits are soaring — in 2012, after-tax profits of manufacturing firms hit a record high of $290 billion. Share values have soared with them. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Industrials Index has risen 59 percent more than the overall 500-stock index since 2009.”
Tags: Great Recession, Industrials, Manufacturing, Profits, S&P 500, Share values, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (October 24)
“After earning big profits at home, Chinese investors are looking abroad for safer assets that offer steady returns. They are shifting their increasingly valuable currency out of China’s expensive property market and into the likes of Manhattan and San Francisco—bargains by comparison.”
Tags: Bargains, China, Investors, Manhattan, Profits, Property markets, Safe assets, San Francisco, Steady returns. Currency
Financial Times (June 17)
“From chemicals and cement to earthmovers and flatscreen televisions, Chinese industry is awash with excess capacity that is driving down profits inside and outside the country and threatens to further destabilise China’s already shaky growth.”
Tags: Cement, Chemicals, China, Excess capacity, Growth, Industry, Profits, Televisions
The Economist (November 3)
Even as profits have tumbled, balance sheets have soared as companies across the globe put more cash aside. “The financial crisis has made firms more skittish about relying on banks or securities markets for funds.” At least in Japan, this “urge to save may be lessening. Japanese firms, with few growth prospects at home, have been making foreign deals. Marc Zenner of JPMorgan Chase notes that in the past 18 months firms that announce acquisitions have been rewarded with higher share prices.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Banks, Cash, Foreign acquisitions, Japan, Profits, Share price
Barrons (March 31)
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. It certainly improves the S&P’s performance. “Without Apple, first-quarter profits for the Standard & Poor’s 500 would have been up only 10%, not the 13% reported.”
An apple a day may keep the doctor away. It certainly improves the S&P’s performance. “Without Apple, first-quarter profits for the Standard & Poor’s 500 would have been up only 10%, not the 13% reported.”
Economist (January 14, 2012)
Founded in 1880, “Kodak was the Google of its day,” with innovative marketing and pioneering technology. But Kodak quit changing. Profits peaked at $2.5 billion in 1999. With 9 quarterly losses in the past 3 years, Kodak’s share price has fallen by 90% in just the past year. In contrast, “Fujifilm has mastered new tactics and survived. Film went from 60% of its profits in 2000 to basically nothing, yet it found new sources of revenue.” In contrast, Kodak “is poised, like an old photo, to fade away.”
Tags: Fujifilm, Innovation, Kodak, Marketing, Profits, Technology
Wall Street Journal (January 2)
Major U.S. companies are poised to increase spending during 2011. At the 419 nonfinancial companies in the S&P 500, cash increased by nearly 50% over pre-recession levels three years prior. Performance has also improved. “Total U.S. corporate profits in 2010’s third quarter rose 26% from a year earlier to $1.64 trillion, the highest in four years.” As a result, major companies are planning to increase spending on plants, technology, R&D and hiring. Corning, Cummins, GE, Honeywell and 3M were among the many examples cited by the Journal.
Tags: 2011 outlook, Cash, Corporate spending, Profits, U.S.
