Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: A smorgasbord of consumer earnings to parse
Check out the smorgasbord of quarterly earnings in the consumer sector.
Among the many companies to report earnings on Thursday were P&G, Burger King, OfficeMax, Colgate, Fortune Brands, Bunge, Kellogg, Safeway and Mead Johnson. As usual, there was something for investors of all stripes.
P&G, for example, posted a better-than-expected profit, helped by its biggest volume gain in more than four years. That would please the optimists.
The pessimists, however, had their news to focus on as the world’s largest household products company, known for its Tide detergent (pictured), also forecast results for the current quarter below Wall Street’s expectations. Go figure.
Burger King reported a smaller profit, blaming severe winter storms during the period for weaker sales in North America, and the CEO said warned that high levels of unemployment and underemployment remained the biggest headwind.
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