whoyg1867

Even as the maker of Brita water filters and Glad trash bags raised prices, it still managed to earn $157 million, or $1.11 per share, compared with $128 million, or 90 cents, a pearl jewelry year ago. Analysts expected the company to earn 95 cents a share.

Revenue slipped less than 1% to biwa pearl $1.37 billion, ahead of Wall Street's consensus of $1.34 billion.

As a result of better-than-expected sales and profit, Clorox upped its full-year guidance to $4.05 to $4.20 from a prior outlook in the range of $4 and $4.15 a share.

Shares of the company inched up 1.6% to $59.92 in pre-market trading.

Last week, rivals Colgate-Palmolive(CL Quote) and Procter & Gamble(PG Quote)also reported earnings results that topped expectations.

-- Reported by akoya pearl Jeanine Poggi in New York

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

And that's a good thing, because what have decidedly not been boring are the volatile ups and downs in the pearl jewelry broader equities markets, driven by economic data reports that signal recovery one day and entrenched recession the next. Like everything else this week, especially commodities-related names, the shares of shipping companies have been violently whipsawed by investors.

DryShips(DRYS Quote), for biwa pearl instance, ended Friday by losing nearly 5% to close at $6.04. The loss erased a 5% jump in value on Thursday, which followed two straight sessions of sharp declines, when the stock surrendered nearly 13%.

Because dry-bulk shares are high beta, big moves in broader indices are magnified in the maritime names. Indeed, every dry-bulk stock moved in similar fashion this week, rocked by the heavy seas.

But back to earnings: This week, DryShips and Genco Shipping & Trading(GNK Quote) released quarterly results that surpassed Wall Street targets -- the akoya pearl former by 7 cents a share and the latter by 9 cents. Both appeared to benefit from interest expenses that came in at a lower rate than many had foreseen.

Otherwise, the results of both operators showed that year-over-year comparisons remain bleak, but that China's raw-materials buying binge, which spurred record imports of iron ore and other commodities all summer, stabilized the shipping industry's profits.

The weakness clearly derived from the larger of the company's two segments: cranes, where sales plunged 52% to $480 million from a year ago. Manitowoc attributed the pearl jewelry poor year-over-year comparison to the still-strong order book in the third period of 2008, before the economy fully took a nosedive after the financial crisis hit.

Though the company didn't provide specific guidance in the release, Manitowoc offered a rather underwhelming look ahead. In a statement, Chief Executive Glen Tellock said, "While improvement in the U.S. and European markets is not expected in the biwa pearl near term, there are pockets of growth in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East."

Midday Friday, shares of the company were trading at $9.21, down $1.24, or nearly 12%, on volume of 5.7 million shares. Average daily turnover is about 6.2 million shares.

Excluding items such as restructuring charges, Manitowoc said it lost $4.9 million, or 4 cents a share. Wall Street analysts were, on average, looking for a profit of 2 cents a share. Including the charges, the company's bottom line showed a loss of $17.7 million, or 14 cents a share. A year ago, it lost $26 million, or 20 cents a share.

Overall, revenue fell 20% to $882 million from a year ago.

The results were in contrast to other heavy-equipment makers, including the diversified giant Caterpillar(CAT Quote) and the mining-machinery specialist Bucyrus(BUCY Quote), both of which reported better-than-expected quarterly numbers. Manitowoc, however -- with its tower cranes, telescoping cranes, mobile hydraulc cranes and lattice-boom crawler cranes -- is more exposed to the akoya pearl still-devastated construction industry than many other names in the heavy-equipment sector.

The jeweler significantly widened its loss, hurt by charges related to store closures and sluggish same-store sales.

During the quarter, the pearl jewelry company recorded a loss of $89.8 million, or $2.81 per share, compared with a loss of $10 million, or 30 cents, in the year-ago period.

Excluding store closure charges of $70.8 million, or $2.22 a share, Zale actually lost 48 cents a share, beating Wall Street's estimates of a loss of $1.00.

Revenue sank 22% to $357.1 million from $456.2 million, while same-store sales plunged 21.2%.

While CEO Neal Goldberg admits that the biwa pearl company has had a difficult year, he says he expects to see an improvement after shuttering more than 200 under-performing stores and cutting other costs.

Still, the company did not provide guidance of the all-important holiday season.

Zale previously postponed reporting quarterly results after discovering it needed to review its accounting on akoya pearl prepaid advertising costs.

The jeweler said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating these accounting issues, which sent shares plunging 21.6% to $5.01 in early afternoon trading.

During the quarter, the casino operator recorded a loss of $123 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with a pearl jewelry loss of $32.2 million, or 9 cents, in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time items, Las Vegas Sands actually posted a profit of 3 cents a share, better than the penny loss analysts expected.

While revenue inched up 3% to $1.14 billion from $1.1 billion, it fell short of Wall Street's consensus of biwa pearl $1.17 billion.

Las Vegas Sands said it is seeing strength in its Macau units, which are on the block for an initial public offering.

The company also provided an update on its construction in Singapore, which it said is on track to open in the akoya pearl first quarter of 2010.

Shares of Sands gave up their earlier gains on the news, falling 3.2% in after-market action. Prior to the release the company ended the day up 12.1% to $14.76.

At least 30 Iraqi children riding in a bus were among the 160 people killed in Sunday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, the deadliest in the capital in more than two years, the ministry said.

One of the bombs exploded inflatable outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said.

The children were packed in a mini bus that was outside the Justice Ministry building, a ministry official said.

The vehicle carrying the explosives that detonated outside the ministry building was a stolen white pick-up from Falluja, Baghdad Gov. Salah Abdul Razzaq told CNN during his inspection of the bomb site. Images from the time of the attack showed the truck, linked to the Department of Water, pull up to the side of the building and blow up, he said.

Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged.
Video: Suicide bombings kill dozens
RELATED TOPICS

Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded "Green Zone," which houses the embassy.

The blasts sparked questions about Iraq's security and national elections planned for January.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who visited the scene shortly after the explosions, said holding the inflatable bouncer elections as scheduled would send a strong message to the attackers.

"The cowardly attack ... should not affect the determination of the Iraqi people from continuing their battle against the deposed regime and the gangs of criminal Baath party, and the terrorist al Qaeda organization,'" al-Maliki said in a written statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support.

In August, more than 100 people were killed in a series of bombings that led to tightened security in Baghdad. Blast walls were installed across the city and checkpoints were added.

Two years earlier, three truck bombings killed hundreds in Qahtaniya, in northern Iraq. Sunday's attacks were the inflatable castles deadliest on Iraqi civilians since those blasts in August 2007.

A day before Sunday's explosions, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, visited Iraq for the first time. During her trip, she made a condolence stop at the Foreign Ministry, one of six sites attacked in August.

Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls January 16, but parliament has not passed key election legislation, putting the balloting in limbo.

The president, prime minister and other top officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the elections law and security concerns.

If you can read this post, it means that the registration process was successful and that you can start blogging