BUSINESS BRIEFS
Amazon profits up 48% but total outlook reduced
Associated Press
NEW YORK — www.Amazon.com Inc. said yesterday that its profit climbed 48 percent in the third quarter, but the company reduced its full-year sales outlook, showing that the online retailer cannot escape the weak economy. Its shares dived.
The company now anticipates 2008 revenue of $18.46 billion to $19.46 billion. That means the high end of its forecast is below the $19.52 billion that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting. In July, Amazon had predicted sales of $19.35 billion to $20.10 billion.
OIL PRICES NOW AT 16-MONTH LOWS
NEW YORK — Oil prices tumbled below $67 a barrel to 16-month lows yesterday after the government reported big increases in U.S. fuel supplies.
The Energy Information Administration said crude inventories jumped by 3.2 million barrels last week, above the 2.9 million barrel increase expected by analysts surveyed by energy research firm Platts. Gasoline inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels last week, and inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, rose by 2.2 million barrels.
REVENUES DOWN FOR 3 DRUGMAKERS
TRENTON, N.J. — Drugmakers Merck & Co., Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline PLC all posted lower profits for the third quarter yesterday, partly due to the intensifying generic competition weighing on the entire pharmaceutical industry.
And in what it characterized as an advance strike to counteract problems, Merck said it will slash about 7,200 jobs, or nearly 13 percent of its workforce, in its second major restructuring in less than three years.
BOEING SHARES DROP 7.5 PERCENT
Boeing Co.'s third-quarter profit dropped 38 percent as a strike and supplier production problems hurt results at the world's No. 2 commercial airplane maker. Its shares fell 7.5 percent yesterday.
Boeing has endured several setbacks, including a 46-day worker strike that analysts estimate has cost roughly $100 million a day in deferred revenue and production delays on its highly anticipated next-generation passenger jet.
The aircraft maker reported net income of $695 million, or 96 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from $1.11 billion, or $1.44 per share.
WACHOVIA LOSSES TOTAL $24 BILLION
NEW YORK — Wachovia Corp. yesterday reported a staggering $24 billion loss as it took a goodwill impairment charge of nearly $19 billion ahead of its acquisition by Wells Fargo & Co.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank reported a loss after paying preferred dividends of $23.89 billion, or $11.18 per share, in the period ended Sept. 30, compared with earnings of $1.62 billion, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding goodwill impairment of $18.7 billion and merger-related and restructuring expense of $414 million, the bank lost $4.76 billion, or $2.23 per share.
