Earnings | featured news

AT&T Inc pulled back its outlook for business services this year, sending its shares down 3 percent despite its better than expected quarterly profit as it reduced costs from customer upgrades to smartphones such as the Apple Inc iPhone.

On Tuesday, Apple is set to report financial results for the second quarter. Analysts are expecting net income of $9.8 billion. But whatever figure Apple reports won't reflect its true profit, because the company hides some of it with an unusual tax maneuver.

General Electric Co reported second-quarter profit slightly above expectations on Friday, offsetting weaker-than-forecast revenue growth, and said it was finding ways to grow despite a hazy economic outlook.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) had a bigger gain in multiyear software deals than analysts predicted last quarter, a sign that businesses are flocking to the company’s programs as consumers delay purchases or opt for competitors.

Google Inc's revenue increased 21 percent as strength in its Internet advertising business offset a persisting drop in ad rates, stirring hopes among investors the Web search leader is close to slowing that decline.

Goldman Sachs says its net income fell 11 percent in the April-to-June period after the investment bank's clients made fewer deals and avoided volatility in global financial markets. The New York bank said its net income fell to $962 million, or $1.78 per share, for the quarter. That compares with $1.09 billion, or $1.85 per share, a year ago. It's also far more than the $1.17 per share that analysts were expecting.

Research in Motion unexpectedly announced on Thursday that a new line of phones that it still hopes will revive its BlackBerry brand will be delayed until next year... Research in Motion, the company behind BlackBerry phones, also reported at $518 million loss for the first quarter.

Barnes & Noble posted a loss for its fiscal fourth quarter on sales that barely inched higher. The loss, while narrower than the one a year earlier, was larger than expected and revenue growth fell short of hopes. Sales of the Nook e-reader fell.

FedEx Corp. said Tuesday that a combination of higher costs and slow global growth will crimp its earnings results over the next 12 months.

An advertising industry group says revenue from Internet advertising in the U.S. hit $8.4 billion in the first three months of the year. That's the highest for the first quarter, up 15 percent from $7.3 billion in the same period last year.