Business Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

EARNINGS

P&G PROFIT RISES 36% ON GILLETTE SALES; SHARES JUMP Procter & Gamble Co., the largest American consumer-products maker, posted a 36% percent increase in fourth-quarter profit on rising sales of Head & Shoulders and Pantene shampoo and the addition of profit from its Gillette unit. The stock rose the most in four years.

Net income rose to $1.9 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.39 billion, or 52 cents, Cincinnati-based P&G said yesterday in a statement. Revenue in the three months through June jumped 25% to $17.8 billion from $14.3 billion.

— Bloomberg News

STARBUCKS SHARES DROP ON JULY SALES FIGURES Shares of Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop chain, dropped 7.5% after the company said July sales at stores open more than a year rose 4%, missing analysts’ estimates.

UBS Securities LLC analyst David Palmer estimated a 7% gain in July sales because of lower demand for new icy Frappuccino flavors such as banana coconut and pomegranate.

Starbucks also said today third-quarter profit rose 16% to $145.5 million, or 18 cents a share, from $125.5 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. Sales in the 13 weeks ended July 2 rose 23 percent to $1.96 billion, from $1.6 billion a year earlier.

— Bloomberg News

AUTOMOBILES

REPORT: FORD CONSIDERS SELLING AILING BRANDS DETROIT — Ford Motor Co., which disappointed Wall Street with a $123 million second-quarter loss, is starting a review of poorly performing units, including Jaguar, with an eye toward possible sale of some operations, according to a published report.

Ford also is considering forming an alliance with other automakers, a move that General Motors Corp. is considering, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. It based the report on unidentified people close to the situation.

“We have nothing to announce at this time,” Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt told the Associated Press yesterday morning.

Ford has been losing market share to Asian manufacturers for a decade and has been badly stung by high gas prices because big trucks and sport utility vehicles account for a majority of the vehicles it sells. For the first time last month, it sold fewer vehicles than Toyota Motor Corp. in America.

— Associated Press

ENERGY

NATURAL GAS PRICES SURGE ON HURRICANE THREAT, HEAT WAVE Naturalgas prices soared, nearing a six-month high, on concern Tropical Storm Chris will disrupt Gulf of Mexico production as a heat wave in the East spurs record demand for electricity to cool homes and offices.

Forecasts that Chris will become a hurricane today and reach the Gulf next week, where it may shut or damage oil and gas platforms, boosted crude oil prices. Power plants are burning more gas to meet air-conditioning needs as temperatures reach the highest in five years in some cities in the Northeast.

— Bloomberg News


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