“DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says its second-quarter profit fell 41 percent as losses in Europe and South America cut into strong North American earnings.

The company says it earned $1.5 billion from April through June, $1 billion less than its $2.5 billion net income a year earlier.

GM earned 90 cents per share compared with $1.54 a year earlier. Revenue fell 5 percent to $37.6 billion.

The company beat Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 75 cents per share.

GM lost $361 million before taxes in Europe, compared with a $102 million profit a year earlier. Even North America showed a little weakness. Pretax profits fell nearly 13 percent to $1.8 million.”

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“(Reuters) – American International Group is looking to buy back a large chunk of its shares from the U.S. government, whose stake in the bailed-out insurer could subsequently go below 50 percent by this fall, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the company’s thinking.

The buybacks are likely to be accompanied by one or more public share offerings of AIG stock by the U.S. Treasury, the WSJ said.

The timing and scale of future offerings and repurchases are not clear, the Journal said.”

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$TWX went from a $1.25 last year this time to $1.43 on a 9% gain in revenues.

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“TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp <6758.T> slashed its forecast for 2012/13 operating profit and lowered its sales expectations for key products including its handheld PSP and PS Vita devices as new boss Kazuo Hirai battles to revive the fortunes of the electronics giant.

Sony said April-June operating profit fell a much steeper-than-expected 77 percent to 6.28 billion yen ($80 million) compared with a year earlier, blaming a strong yen and weak economies. Analysts had penciled in a 36 percent fall.

Rival Sharp Corp <6753.T> announced a 94 billion yen operating loss ($1.2 billion) for the June quarter and plans its first job cuts in more than 60 years as Japan’s electronics industry scrambles to keep up with foreign competitors.”

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“BNP Paribas SA (BNP), France’s largest bank, posted a 13 percent drop in second-quarter profit as Europe’s debt crisis curbed trading revenue.

Net income dropped to 1.85 billion euros ($2.26 billion) from 2.13 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based company said in a statement today. That beat the 1.65 billion-euro average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.”

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Toyota announced the recall Wednesday of some 778,000 vehicles in the United States due to a suspension problem that could cause crashes.

The recall comprises roughly 760,000 Toyota RAV4’s from model years 2006 to 2011, as well as about 18,000 Lexus HS 250h’s from 2010.

Toyota said that if the nuts on the rear suspension arms of these vehicles aren’t tightened properly during a wheel alignment service, the arms may come loose or separate.

Read here.

$FB hit  a fresh 52 week low today. Awesome.

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“(AP) NEW YORK – Burger King Worldwide Inc.’s (BKW) net income surged 60 percent in the second quarter as the fast food chain reworked its menu and focused on expanding overseas.

As the fast-food market becomes increasingly crowded at home in the U.S., Burger King has concentrated on growing abroad. In the past year, 80 percent of new store openings have been in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

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“(AP) MILWAUKEE – Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) says its second-quarter net income jumped 30 percent on higher U.S. demand for motorcycles.

Harley reported net income of $247.3 million, or $1.07 per share, for the three months ended July 1. That’s up from $190.6 million, or 81 cents per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $1.05 per share.”

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“Amazon Prime members who like to rock an iPad, not the Kindle Fire, now have access to Amazon’s ever-growing collection of movies and TV with today’s launch of theAmazon Instant Video app, which just popped up this morning in the App Store for iPad. As with the desktop and Kindle tablet version, the app allows users to watch videos for free, but only if they’re already a paying member of Amazon Prime ($79/year).”

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Gapping up 

SIMG +22.4%, NOK +12%, DEPO +8.7%, PZZA +6.6%, GNW +6.5%, FTR +5.1%,

TPLM +4.7%, ALL +4.1%, DGI +3.7%, WWWW +3.2%, BUD +3.1%, EA +2.7%,

PXD +1.8%, BP -0.6%,

Gapping down

CECO -19.3%, MGRC -17.3%, DRIV -13.7%, PPO -12.5%, TRLG -12.3%,

ARRY -11.7%, TTMI -10.4%, DWA -7.6%, CNW -7.4%, MAPP -5.4%, IDIX -5.2%,

SREV -4.7%, SAVE -4%, FIRE -4%, CBT -3.7%, BMC -3.3%, NICE -3.3%, TTWO -2.6%,

TCO -2%, VNTV -2%

“MasterCard Inc.’s second-quarter profit increased 15% as cardholder transactions and payments volume continued to grow, though revenue slightly missed expectations.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based company said it earned $700 million, or $5.55 per share, up from $608 million, or $4.76 per share, a year earlier. The results included a previously disclosed $20 million pretax charge for a pending multi-billion settlement of merchant lawsuits MasterCard, Visa Inc. and numerous banks entered into last month.

Excluding the charge, MasterCard posted a profit of $713 million, or $5.65, beating analysts’ estimates.”

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$TWX beat by a penny, but profits are down 30% + from last year….

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“Societe Generale SA (GLE), France’s second- largest bank, posted a bigger-than-expected 42 percent drop in second-quarter profit after taking writedowns on its Russian unit and U.S. asset manager TCW Group.

Net income fell to 433 million euros ($533 million) from 747 million euros a year earlier, the Paris-based bank said by e-mail today. That was short of the 695 million-euro average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The bank took a 250 million-euro writedown on its Rosbank division in Russia and a 200 million-euro markdown on Los Angeles-based TCW.”

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Companies with women on their boards performed better in challenging markets than those with all-male boards in a study suggesting that mixing genders may temper risky investment moves and increase return on equity.

Read the article here.

“Zynga’s stock has crated to around $3 from an IPO price of $10.

Or, more importantly, it’s now under $3, down from $12 when Zynga had a secondary offering of shares in April earlier this year.

During that secondary offering, insiders like Mark Pincus and a number of investors cashed out, selling about $516 million in stock.

Then Zynga had a disastrous second quarter where it reduced its full-year guidance, sending the stock tumbling.”

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Fun times in banking…

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Gapping up

RTEC +15.1%, CRUS +14.6%, AH +9.9%, ACPW +7.3%, VRTX +6.9%,

NOK +6%, HLF +5.4%, LQDT +4.7%, ASTX +4%, HTZ +3.5%, TXRH +3.1%,

S +2%,  FB +0.6% , AMRS +12.4%, LQDT +4.7% , LQDT +4.7% ,

Gapping down 

PRSS -36.9%, RLD -19.8%, OCZ -15.9%, HUM -12.7%, MMR -9.2%, STX -7.7%,

SPN -5.2%, WCG -4.6%, ANAD -4.5%, BP -4.4%, ASIA -3.9%, BUD -3.3%,

BGC -2.8%, WLP -2.2%, UNH -1.4%, PMCS -9.7%,  CAH -7.6%,  KORS -4.8% ,TIF -3.9% ,

IDIX -2.9%

Does Coach earnings spell a sign to come for the wealthy ? We will have to see, but it is not a good sign for luxury retailers.

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