“Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co topped Wall Street estimates with a 42 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by higher fares, and said demand was solid despite the fragile economy.

U.S. airlines have merged, raised ticket prices and shown discipline in cutting back flights to match demand to return to stability over the past two years.

“Southwest and the rest of the airlines are really focusing in on the routes that are higher-yielding and more profitable, and as a whole that has helped the industry,” saidMatthew Jacob, an airline analyst with ITG Investment Research.”

Full article

“(AP) DETROIT – Honda is recalling 172,200 small SUVs and cars in the U.S. because the doors may not close.

The recall affects 166,000 CR-V SUVs from the 2012 model year and 6,200 Acura ILX small luxury cars from the 2013 model year.”

Full article

“Verizon Communications reported quarterly earnings in line with forecasts on Thursday, but revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations.”

Full report

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Pharmacy chain Walgreens says it will begin filling prescriptions from customers in the Express Scripts network starting in September under a new multiyear contract between the companies.

Walgreen had stopped filling prescriptions for Express Scripts after a contract between the companies ended last year.

Shares of Walgreen Co. jumped 14 percent in premarket trading while Express Scripts shares rose 3 percent.”

Full article

Gapping up 

MLNX +37.1%, SCSS +17.1%, SWKS +10.7%, NOK +6.4%, QCOM +5.8%,

EBAY +5.3%, EDU +4.2%, TPX +3%, IBM +2.8%, BHP +2.2%, MT +2%,

RIG +1.7%, BBL +1.7%, NVS +1.3%,  RENN +2.4%, ERIC +2.3% , NWSA +0.6%,

AMZN +0.4% ,  PG +0.3%, ORCL +0.5%,  ALU +4.6% , BRCM +3.3%, WAG +14.8%,

ESRX +7.6%, GG +1.8%, SLV +1%, RIO +0.9%, GLD +0.7%,  GGC +7.5%, PPG +1.6% ,

UNH +2.2%, AN +2.1%, FCX +1.6%, NVS +1.5%, PM +1.3%,

Gapping down

IRG -15.2%, DCIX -14.6%, ANTH -13.5%, GHL -10.1%, CS -3.5%, SYK -2.5%,

YUM -2.4%, NSPH -2.3%, FFIV -1.8%, XLNX -1%, PWR -2.1%, RVBD -0.4%,

NSPH -2.3%, CVS -5.7%,  DCIX -14.6% , POOL -7.6%, JCI -6.4%, MS -4.9% ,

GHL -4.5%, FFIV -1.8%, VZ -1.6%, XLNX -1%, AXP -0.5%,

$MS missed by $0.09 per share….

Full report

“UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), the biggest U.S. health insurer, boosted its profit outlook for this year on the strength of rising enrollment for government-backed Medicare and Medicaid policies.

UnitedHealth forecast profit of $4.90 to $5 a share for 2012 in a statement today, the second time this year the Minnetonka, Minnesota-based insurer raised the guidance. The company reported second-quarter net income rose 5.5 percent to $1.34 billion, or $1.27 a share, beating analyst estimates.”

Full report

Oh my, yes…

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) has started discussions with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) over a bid for the U.S. producer’s gas assets in Mozambique, where energy companies are looking to tap the largest discoveries in a decade, according to people familiar with the situation.

Europe’s biggest oil company has begun informal talks with Anadarko about a deal for some or all of its 36.5 percent stake in the Rovuma-1 offshore gas fields, though Anadarko is reluctant to sell before further results of exploration in the area are known, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.

A Royal Dutch Shell Plc deal for Rovuma-1, where an Anadarko-led group has found natural gas equal to as much as six times the U.K.’s existing reserves, would bring the Anglo-Dutch company’s capital and expertise to bear on a complex energy project.

Anadarko hasn’t begun a formal auction process for the stake, which could fetch about $8 billion based on the price Thai energy company PTT Exploration & Production Pcl (PTTEP) offered for the U.K.’s Cove Energy Plc, which holds 8.5 percent of the same fields, they said. Shell this week dropped a plan to buy Cove after its shares more than doubled in a bidding war with PTTEP.

“Big oil certainly see significant resource potential out of East Africa, with Mozambique today offering the largest prize,” said Theepan Jothilingan, an oil analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. “It will be advantageous if you have one of them coming in on the development of the liquefied natural gas project and from that perspective Shell fits the bill. Anadarko will look to scale down at the right price.”

Anadarko shares rose 81 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close at $72.63 in New York, while Shell’s London shares gained 0.6 percent to 2,216 pence.

Read here:

Social networks are rife with online polls, but beginning as early as next week, residents of Washington State will have a new way to sign up for the real things, when Washington becomes the first US state to allow citizens to register to vote via Facebook.

“In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered,” Shane Hamlin, Washington’s co-director of elections, told the Associated Press.

The state has collaborated with Facebook and Microsoft to build an app that lets voters register from right within the social network. Users will also be able to “like” the app to recommend it to their friends.

Washington – not to be confused with Washington, DC, the US capital – is currently one of only 13 states that allow voters to register online. So far, they have been able to do so via the state-run “My Vote” website, and for the most part it has worked out well.

A 2010 study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that online voter registration was popular in Washington, with nearly all respondents saying they found the system easy to use and that they would recommend it to others. Furthermore, voters who registered online were more likely to actually vote in elections than those who registered using traditional means.

The problem, the Pew study found, was that most Washington voters simply did not know that web-based registration was possible. In 2010, only 27 per cent of registered Washington voters knew about the online system.

Adding Facebook-based registration as a second online option could help get the word out to many more potential voters, particularly younger ones, though whether they will be able to tear themselves away from FarmVille long enough to cast their ballots remains to be seen.

Full report

Full report

“International Business Machines (IBM) this afternoon reported Q2 revenue that missed analysts’ estimates, but earnings per share that beat consensus.

Revenue in the three months ended in June rose to $25.8 billion, yielding EPS of $3.51.

Analysts on average were expecting $26.3 billion and $3.43 per share.

For the full year, the company raised its outlook to EPS of “at least $15.10″ from a prior $15 per share. That is slightly ahead of consensus of $15.05.

IBM shares are up $1.24, or half a percent, at $189.49  in late trading.”

Full report

Both revs and eps were light vs consensus…

Full report

Full report

Get to work congress!

Full article

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Capital One Financial agreed to pay $210 million to resolve charges by U.S. banking regulators that its call-center representatives misled consumers into paying for extra credit card products.”

Full article

“Facebook yesterday saw a decline in share price on a report of falling user numbers in key markets like the U.S. and Europe, but in a sign of how it is firming up its business, Facebook is also making significantly more money and getting more sticky with its advertising, on the back of newer, more targeted ad formats like Sponsored Stores and mobile ads. The latest quarterly report from ad agency TBG Digital, out today, indicates that cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) on ads on the social network rose by 58 percent compared to the same period last year, with overall engagement also up by 11 percent, a reversal of the decline seen last quarter. And among Facebook’s newer units that target people more directly, Sponsored Stories saw 53 percent more engagement than standard ads, and mobile ads had four times the engagement of Twitter ads, says TBG.”

Full article

“Microsoft continues to make a big push with the Windows Phone platform, but figures out todayfrom Strategy Analytics indicate that it’s still barely moving the needle against the Android/iOS juggernaut. In 2012, Microsoft’s Windows Phone will account for only four percent of the 123 million smartphones that will be sold in the U.S. in the year. That’s a rise, but of only one percentage point compared to 2011. In terms of actual unit numbers, this works out to 5 million devices sold in 2012, compared to 3.5 million in 2011.”

Full article

“Reuters) – BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, said on Wednesday its second-quarter profit fell 11 percent as tumultuous market conditions cut into fee income.

Net income at New York-based BlackRock dropped to $554 million, or $3.08 per share, from $619 million, or $3.21 per share, a year earlier.

Investor interest in BlackRock’s iShares unit, the top manager of U.S. exchange-traded funds, saved the firm from an even deeper profit decline. Investors added a net $6.1 billion into iShares funds in the quarter, while withdrawing $2.3 billion combined from BlackRock’s other long-term funds.”

Full report

Gapping up

SOMX +76.9%, FOLD +8.8%, ECTY +7.3%, EMC +6.5%, VMW +5.7%, OREX +5%,

CS +4%, FIS +2.8%, AIXG +1.9%, RHT +1.6%, CTXS +1.4%, TIF +1.2%, F +0.4% ,

FFIV +2.4%, RHT +1.6%, CTXS +1.4% , FUN +2.2%, ZNGA +3.9%, VVUS +20%

Gapping down

ROVI -24.6%, ARNA -9.5%, SBH -7.1%, SSNC -5.2%, HRZN -4%, DB -2.7%,

RIO -2.5%, RL -1.5%, RDS.A -1%, INTC -1%,  SKS -2.5% , TSLA -3.4%,

DLB -2.3% , CAT -1.2% , RL -1.5%, BV -0.3%, ARNA -7.2% , GFI -1.2%, SLV -1%,

BBL -0.9%, BHP -0.9%, SAN -3.9%, DB -2.7%, HBC -2.5%, BBVA -2.1%, UBS -1.8%, BCS -1.4%,