More Earnings in the Pipe - 08'Q1

Some upcoming earnings to watch:

   Semi-darlings: NVDA, MRVL.

   And Energy power houses: XOM, CVX.

Companies tied directly to the consumer remain the most exciting.

Signs of Recovery -- 2008 Q1 Earnings Recap

Earnings season is in full swing, and one of the surprises is how much some companies have been able to massively grow their profits while most financial news coverage focuses on the doom and gloom. It seems that for well-run companies, this localized down turn has been a bonanza. Here is a sample of some of the companies that have reported incredible gains in profits in year-over-year this quarter:

Tech

• Baidu (BIDU) +100%
• Google (GOOG) +30% +46% (sales)
• Apple (AAPL) +36% +43% (sales)
• IBM +25%
  
• VMWare (VMW) +5% +69% (sales)

Semi

• TSMC (TSM) +49%
• Texas Instruments (TXN) +29%
• Broadcom (BRCM) +22%
• Xilinx (XLNX) +10%

Networking

• Juniper (JNPR) +66%

Energy

• BP +63%
  
• Shell (RDS.A)  +25%
  
• ConocoPhillips (COP) +17%

Chemical

• ADM +42%
  
• Du Pont (DD) +26%

Finance

• Mastercard (MA) +100%
• Visa (V) +28%

Consumer

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) +40%
• CocaCola (KO) +32%
• Yum Brands (YUM) +31%
• MacDonalds (MCD) +24%
• AT&T (T) +22% 

Industrial

• CSX +63%
  
• Honeywell (HON) +22%

Costco and WalMart ration rice sales to small businesses

Have a small Chinese food restaurant and need to stock up on rice at Costco (COST) or Sam's Club (WMT) for your growing business? Well as of yesterday, both stores imposed rice rationing restrictions, and your purchases will be limited to 80 pounds per visit.