Earnings News

NEW ALBANY, Ohio - Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said Friday that its first-quarter earnings rose 3 percent from a year ago on stronger sales.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co reported higher quarterly profit on Friday, helped by higher sales in all its chains and better gross profit.

LONDON (AFP) - British Airways said Friday that its annual net profit more than doubled as it cut costs to help offset record high fuel prices while the group offered its first dividend in seven years.

LONDON - British Airways said Friday it will pay a dividend for the first time in seven years after reporting its full-year profits more than doubled.

MILWAUKEE - Department store stalwarts J.C. Penney Co., Nordstrom Inc. and Kohl's Inc. all reported steep drops in first-quarter profits on Thursday as Americans snub apparel to focus on basic necessities at discounters in a challenging economy.

1 Erasing modest early losses, the Nasdaq rose 1.5%, the NYSE composite 1.2% and the S&P 500 1.1% -- all to 4-month highs. The Dow climbed 0.7%. Several factors fueled gains: a less-bad Philly Fed, oil reversing from highs, Internet deals, solid retail earnings and reports of a housing rescue bill deal. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 10 basis points to 3.83%.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Upscale department store Nordstrom Inc reported a lower quarterly net profit on Thursday that beat Wall Street estimates, hurt by lower sales in what the company called a "challenging retail environment."

SEATTLE - Luxury retailer Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday its profit fell 24 percent in the first quarter, as recession rumblings in the U.S. crimped even wealthier consumers' shopping habits.

DALLAS - Blockbuster Inc. said Thursday it swung to a first-quarter profit on lower expenses and improved domestic sales, bolstering the movie rental company chairman's belief that a turnaround plan is working.

DALLAS - J.C. Penney reported first-quarter profits were halved and on Thursday predicted "difficult" conditions for the entire year as consumers pull back on spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc said on Thursday its first-quarter profit dropped 50 percent as the retailer cut prices to clear unsold merchandise, and it forecast a similar profit drop for its current quarter.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blockbuster Inc , the largest U.S. movie rental chain, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as it cut costs by closing stores, reducing advertising and overhead expenses.

TOKYO - Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's second biggest banking group, reported Thursday a 50 percent drop in profit for the fiscal year, taking a beating from U.S. subprime credit problems.

NEW YORK - The stock market notched its second straight daily advance Thursday, with investors assuaged by a pullback in oil prices and some better-than-expected economic data.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailer J.C. Penney Co Inc reported a 50 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as its middle-income shoppers pulled back on spending amid the U.S. economic downturn.

LONDON - BT Group PLC, Britain's biggest telecommunications company, reported a 6.2 percent decline Thursday in its fourth quarter profit, as costs rose and it lost some wholesale customers to broadband services.

LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets diverged on Thursday as companies published mixed earnings news, and after share-price gains in Tokyo and overnight on Wall Street, dealers said.

(Reuters) - Friedman Billings Ramsey said Freddie Mac will not realize meaningful earnings growth until 2012, at the earliest, and that the $5.5 billion capital raise it announced Wednesday will not be enough.

PARIS - Credit Agricole said Thursday it plans to sell $7.72 billion worth of assets and named a new leader at its investment bank. The French bank, shaken by the global credit crisis, will also seek $9.1 billion in new capital.

TOKYO - Sony shares jumped nearly 9 percent in Thursday trading in Tokyo, a day after the Japanese electronics and entertainment company released upbeat earnings that included a record fiscal year profit.

TOKYO - NEC Corp.'s profit for the fiscal year through March more than doubled from the previous year as the Japanese electronics maker's mobile phone and computer-chip businesses swung to profit.

BERLIN (AFP) - Net profit at German utilities group RWE fell 48.5 percent in the first quarter on a writedown for its US unit American Water, regulatory measures and the weak pound, figures showed on Thursday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - NEC Corp, Japan's biggest maker of telecoms network equipment, doubled its quarterly profit, helped by cost cuts and a healthy IT services business, but its outlook for the current year missed expectations.

LONDON (Reuters) - SABMiller , the world's biggest brewer, beat forecasts with a 19 percent rise in annual earnings on Thursday and said it expects to raise beer prices to offset soaring commodity costs, sending its shares higher.

Freddie Mac beat Wall Street's expectations in the first quarter, but the mortgage finance company didn't vanquish concerns about its ability to weather the housing bust.

ST. LOUIS - Deere & Co., the world's biggest maker of farm machinery, said Wednesday its second-quarter profit rose 22 percent, propelled by lofty crop prices that stoked global demand for its farm equipment despite a faltering U.S. economy.

CINCINNATI - Despite a $59 million loss and a slump in sales in the first quarter, Macy's Inc. on Wednesday posted results that beat Wall Street expectations because of what analysts said were tight controls on expenses and inventories.

PARIS - Airbus parent EADS said Wednesday it returned to profit in the first quarter as the planemaker increased deliveries and cut costs, helping offset the weaker dollar.

TOKYO - Sony punctuated its recovery by swinging to a profit for the January-March quarter from a loss a year ago on its way to a record performance for the fiscal year as it reduced losses from its PlayStation 3 video game business.