Call it another sign that the economy is showing a slow recovery.
FedEx said today its earnings, while lower than a year ago, should be better than previously thought when it reports them next week. (It expects earnings to be 58 cents a share, which is higher than the guidance of 30 cents to 45 cents a share). The pre-announcement sent it’s shares 6% higher and added 4.5% to its rival, UPS.
FedEx cited in particular international priority shipping services, which are packages sent not only from this country overseas but between foreign countries
Paul Vigna and Madeleine Lim discuss recent indicatoins that the economy is recovering, albeit it slowly, from higher import prices to better earnings expected from FedEx to stronger economic data out of China.
Apple Computer reported some pretty incredible earnings yesterday – the kind of numbers that, if you didn’t know any better, certainly don’t signal an economic recession. But there were some areas of its earnings report that indeed do reflect what it going on in the broad economy. Apple’s margins were super – 36.4% this quarter versus 32.9%. True, part of what drove those margins were sales of very high margin products, like software (Apple rolled out a new suite of photo/video software called ILife09 as well as a newer version of its Microsoft Office competing software called IWork09). In addition, there were two other broader economic pieces that likely should benefit others as well – commodity and hardware component costs were significantly lower. The component pricing was down because, as Apple executives said on the earnings conference call, the last quarter was all about suppliers wringing out excess inventory. Next quarter will be good on this front, but not as good. Also contributing to better margins were lower freight costs – shipping companies are battling each other for a grab of lower volumes and they are doing so by cutting prices. Good for Apple. Bad for FedEx and UPS.
President Reagan’s former budget director David Stockman says Edward Snowden performed a heroic act, the Patriot Act should be repealed, and this whole spying-on-U.S.-citizens thing is a symptom of an out-of-control military-industrial complex. Click here to watch him go on YahooFinance. The author of “The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in A […]
Call it another sign that the economy is showing a slow recovery.
