Stocks, Earnings | featured news

A rare earnings miss for IBM tugged the Dow Jones industrial average lower on Friday, while the rest of the market headed toward slight gains after a turbulent week. Quarterly earnings for the country's largest provider of computer services fell short of forecasts for the first time since 2005.Read more on NewsOK.com

EBay Inc reported holiday quarter results that just beat Wall Street expectations, but the e-commerce company also gave a cautious forecast for 2013. EBay shares climbed 1.7 percent to $53.80 in after-hours trading following the announcement. Expectations were high ahead of the results because sales data from outside sources suggested strong sales growth from eBay's online marketplace and a solid increase in transactions processed by the company's PayPal payments business.

Weak earnings from several large companies and a credit rating downgrade of several regions in Spain raised concerns about a slowing global economy... The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 1.8 percent, or 243.36 points, to end at 13,102.53, its worst performance since June. The losses added to the big declines on Friday, and dropped leading indexes to their lowest levels since early September, before the Federal Reserve announced its latest monetary stimulus program.

Expectations for third quarter earnings reports were dismal. But a recent flurry of high-profile reports has investors scowling even more at the weak revenue numbers.

Google Inc.’s stock plunged suddenly on Thursday afternoon after a contractor released the search company’s third-quarter earnings report early, by mistake. The stock fell $68.19, or 9 percent, to $687.30 before trading was halted to give investors a chance to digest the news. Google’s report had been slated for release after the close of regular trading Thursday.

Stocks soared Tuesday, as investors welcomed a slew of solid earnings and after a German investor confidence survey surprised on the upside and Spanish benchmark yields eased.

Google recently announced its Q2 2011 earnings on July 14, 2011. [1] For the quarter, total advertising revenues surged by about 33% over Q2 2010 values driven by increased paid clicks as well as higher cost-per-click rates over the same quarter last year.

Caterpillar drove the Dow Jones industrial average higher Friday after the company reported a huge gain in first-quarter earnings. The world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment rose 2.5 percent after its earnings increased more than five-fold. The company also raised its sales and profit forecast for the year.

U.S. markets experienced a steep selloff Friday as disappointing earnings reports from major corporate icons and depressing consumer sentiment report pushed the Dow down 250 points.

U.S. stocks rose as optimism rose over the upcoming earnings season and confidence in the global economy strengthened after European leaders pledged to extend aid to Greece.