08/17/98 INDUSTRIES WITH THE BIGGEST DOLLAR CHANGE IN THE QUARTER

INDUSTRIES WITH THE BIGGEST DOLLAR CHANGE IN THE QUARTER

There is no disguising the weakness of second-quarter profits, down 2% on a modest revenue increase of 7%. Bad news from Compaq ($3.6 billion loss), Motorola ($1.3 billion loss), and General Motors (profits down 81%) chopped 8% off the all-industry results. Losses at AT&T and Lucent Technologies hurt telecom, and Intel's 29% earnings decline soured semiconductors. Profits at the big oil companies also came up dry. There was some good news, though. Ameritech and SBC Communications combined to make phone companies winners, while Eli Lilly's comeback from a $1.7 billion loss and solid returns at Merck and Pfizer made drugs pay off. Is this the worst we'll see, or just the start of an earnings slide?

Return to main story