BUSINESS BRIEFS
Exxon Mobil net profit a record $45.2 billion
Advertiser News Services
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Exxon Mobil Corp. topped its own record earnings with a $45.2 billion net profit for 2008, even though earnings declined sharply in the fourth quarter as crude oil and natural gas prices collapsed.
"Exxon Mobil's financial strength continued to support its disciplined capital investment approach in the midst of a growing global economic slowdown," Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson said.
The Irving, Texas-based oil giant earned $7.8 billion in the fourth quarter, down 33 percent from the same period a year earlier and the lowest quarterly profit since the second quarter of 2005. It said lower prices for crude oil knocked $3.2 billion off its bottom line, and total production was lower, partly because of hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the Gulf of Mexico.
But huge profits earlier in the year, as oil and gas prices were skyrocketing to record levels, were enough to give the company the biggest annual earnings ever reported by a U.S. company.
P&G STOCK SINKS TO 52-WEEK LOW
CINCINNATI — Even Procter & Gamble Co., the world's largest consumer products maker, is getting dragged down by the spreading recession that has households around the globe looking for ways to tighten their budgets.P&G reported yesterday that its second-quarter profit jumped 53 percent, but that was boosted by the sale of its Folgers coffee business last year. The current outlook isn't so robust, and P&G stock tumbled 6 percent yesterday to close at a 52-week low.
The company dropped its earning projections for the full year, and expects total sales to fall in the current quarter and possibly for the year.
MORE OVERSIGHT OPPOSED BY SOME
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders are proposing new government oversight over Wild West corners of the financial markets that operate largely in secrecy and have been pinned as potential threats to stability. Fresh targets are hedge funds and the $60 trillion global market in credit default swaps — a form of insurance against loan defaults.But powerful financial interests, representing industries battered by the crisis though still deep-pocketed, already are pushing back against new restrictions.
New proposals for financial regulation are coming from all corners, including the Obama administration, lawmakers, state securities regulators and the congressionally chartered panel overseeing the government's $700 billion bailout program.
CATERPILLAR CUTS 2,110 MORE JOBS
PITTSBURGH — Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. announced 2,110 new job cuts yesterday as it scales back production amid a world economic slowdown.The world's largest maker of mining and construction machinery said the layoffs at three Illinois plants and other cost-cutting measures were needed to maintain competitiveness. Like other big manufacturers, Caterpillar has seen demand for its large equipment fall as customers cut back spending.
The new layoffs came on top of 20,000 job cuts announced earlier this week, when the Peoria, Ill.-based company reported a 32 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit.
CAR SALES TO FLEET BUYERS SLUMPING
NEW YORK — A steep drop in sales to rental car companies and other fleet buyers is expected to weigh heavily on carmakers when they report their January sales results Tuesday.It remains to be seen whether injecting government cash into automakers' financing arms helped consumers make up the difference.
"It is an automotive hurricane moving through this industry," said Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co.'s marketing chief, at last weekend's National Automotive Dealers Association convention. Farley predicted a big drop in business from fleet buyers, which are keeping their vehicles longer to pare costs.
General Motors Corp. said earlier this month it is planning for the entire industry to sell 10.5 million new vehicles in the U.S. this year, while Chrysler LLC has said it's planning on 11.1 million units. But few people are expecting the automakers to start 2009 at that pace.
