Life is good when you’re in the white collar side of oil.
Exxon posted the second largest profit by an American company ever after posting $10.5 billion for the third quarter.
They came up just shy of the record set by…themselves in Q4, 2005.
The company easily beat Wall Street expectations by almost a billion dollars. a CNNMoney report showed First Call predicted a $9.68 billion profit for the third quarter.
Exxon boasts the largest revenue of any corporation worldwide.
Much of the world’s remaining oil lies beneath politically charged areas such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Russia and Venezuela and recent reports show as much as 25 percent of untapped natural resources are buried under the North Pole where economic worries have slowed the drilling process. Companies like Exxon have been criticized for not doing enough to increase production and keep prices low. Exxon stock is up a modest 1.23 percent in trading so far.
Oracle is taking aim at the Linux market. CEO Larry Ellison unveiled plans to offer big businesses their own level of technical support for Red Hat Linux at 50 percent reduced rate over Red Hat’s own service. Ellison used the term “enterprise support” in a Reuters article.
Red Hat shares took a nose dive and dropped an additional 11 percent after hours on the announcement. Oracle, on the other hand, has been on a tear in the last 12 months, climbing at a steady rate. Ellison may be outspoken, but he’s certainly doing something right over there, and getting on board with Linux is a smart move, because more and more companies are starting to use Linux as an effective and cost-saving solution.
Finally this week, in the alcohol world, Budweiser saw its third quarter earnings rise 26 percent and its shares were up accordingly yesterday.
The company is facing stiff competition from imports and microbreweries lately but its market share did rise to 49 percent, up slightly.
Anheuser-Busch has increased its variety, especially in its Michelob line. Their Specialty Sample Collection has proven popular as of late.
August Busch IV is the new man upstairs and the latest generation is off to a good start after acquiring Rolling Rock in May, but they continue to face competition and an all out advertising blitz from Miller, one of their nearest competitors. This company will be closely watched come Superbowl time.
That’s the rag. See you next time.