“Starbucks Corp., Ford Motor Co. andAmerican Airlines Group Inc. posted profits that exceeded analysts’ estimates, benefiting in part from improved economies at home and abroad.
The automaker and the coffee-shop chain yesterday joined the 77 percent of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies that havebeaten second-quarter projections, with more than 280 yet to report. Facebook Inc. closed at a record yesterday, one day after the social network said mobile advertising fueled sales.
Ford turned its first profit in three years in Europe, which is recovering from a recession. Starbucks reported a 23 percent gain in fiscal third-quarter profit after selling more food in the U.S. Yesterday’s results helped keep the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average near record highs, with the U.S. recovering from a first-quarter economic contraction and poised to exceed 200,000 jobs for a sixth month.
“It’s good to see improvement in the economy translating into better earnings and helping the stock market,” Kevin Caron, who helps oversee $170 billion as a portfolio manager at Stifel Financial, said in an interview.
While the S&P 500 companies are running head of the first quarter’s 74 percent trend for beating estimates, yesterday’s results weren’t uniform. Caterpillar Inc., the largest maker of mining machinery, forecast full-year profit and sales that trailed estimates and said there’s no sign of an upturn in the industry in 2014. Amazon.com Inc. reported its biggest quarterly loss since 2012 as Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos builds more distribution warehouses, adds grocery deliveries and develops new smartphones and tablets.
