Stocks and ETFs edged up at the start of a heavy earnings week, as results from McDonald’s Corp. matched Wall Street’s expectations.
- McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) reported mixed fourth-quarter results early Monday morning. McDonald’s said it booked a 1.6% increase in fourth-quarter profits while revenue came in 4% higher year-over-year. McDonald’s reported that global comparable same-store sales increased 5%, including 4.4% growth in the United States, 3.4% in Europe and 5.5% in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The PowerShares Dynamic Food & Beverage ETF (NYSEArca: PBJ) is down slightly today; McDonald’s is 4.7%.
- Earnings for oil service giants are going according to script, with Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) following Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) with an earnings beat on Monday morning, but failing to impress the market. Halliburton’s shares are up today after a reported fourth-quarter net profit of $605 million beat the Street estimate. Halliburton revenue was $5.2 billion, beating the Street expectation for revenue of $4.9 billion. Investors can play the Oil Service HOLDRs (AMEX: OIH); Halliburton is 12%, Schlumberger is 19.7%.
- Shares of Department-store operator J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) surged more than 5.5% on Monday after unveiling restructuring that will see it close five department stores and one home store, because they are no longer profitable enough. The group will also wind down its catalog business by shutting 19 outlet stores in the course of 2011 and 2012. SPDR S&P Retail (NYSEArca: XRT) is flat so far this morning; JC Penney is 1.4%.
- European stock markets traded mostly lower Monday amid losses for car makers and other stocks that depend on emerging-markets growth, with shares of Royal Philips Electronics dropping sharply after missing earnings expectations. The Vanguard European ETF (NYSEArca: VGK) is up in early trading.
Gregory A. Clay contributed to this article.
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