Northfield, Illinois-based Kraft Foods released Q2 2009 profits, reporting a strong 11-percent increase in total profits to $827 million ($0.56 per share), compared to $745 million ($0.49 per share) in the same period last year.

The company managed to increase profits despite revenue falling by 5.9-percent to $10.16 billion (analyst expected $10.37 billion in revenue).

The savings could be attributed to a massive completed restructuring plan that saw to lower total costs and improve its product offerings. The company plans to cut an additional $50 million as part of its cost cutting plan.

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Procter & Gamble Co. has reported an 18-percent decline in Q4 profits due to a decline in all of its businesses and currency volatility.

The company reported $2.47 billion ($0.80 per share) in Q4 profits, down from $3.02 billion ($0.92 per share) from the same period last year. Sales were aggregately down 11-percent to $18.7 billion.

The company is forecasting earnings of $3.65-$3.80 per share for the remainder of 2009.

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The biggest fast-food chain McDonald’s today posted Q2 2009 financial results, posting a net profit of $1.09 billion, down 8% YoY in the same quarter.

The company said operating income in the US was up 5% YoY. The company also noted operating income was up 34% in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and in Africa.

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Luxury New York-based jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co has posted earnings as of the quarter-ended January 31, 2009.

The company reported that sales were down 20% to $841.2 million from $1.05 billion. Net income for the quarter was down to $31.1 million ($0.25 per share) from $127.4 million ($0.96 per share) a year ago in the same period. Same store sales were down 23% over last year.

The sharp decline in demand as a result of the global economic downturn prompted the jewelry retailer to close its Irdesse pearl chain. Demand for items costing more than $50,000 dropped significantly.

Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski previously announced plans to cut 10% of the company’s worldwide workforce by the end of the year to deal with the downturn.

Tiffany now forecasts total sales to be down 11% for 2009. Actual sales could fall below that given more tuff economic times projected ahead as consumer confidence dips.

The Tiffany stock today is surprisingly up about 14% to $23.06 following the news in mid-day trading.

More massive job cuts from the Royal Bank of Scotland are expected this week which could be anywhere between 12,000-20,000. RBS CEO Stephen Hester (paid by a $1.73 million annual salary) is believed to announce new cost cutting measures Thursday, along with the announcement of the job cuts, as the bank is expected to announce a massive $40.4 billion loss for all of 2008.

The new unprecedented cost cutting measures come as UBS tries to avoid full nationalization. More job cuts are also expected in the U.K, where 2,000 of the 80,000 current jobs have already been cut in that country. RBS will also commit to selling Read the full story

Vancouver-based miner Teck Cominco has just posted a massive Q4 $607 million ($1.28 per share) loss. Revenue in the quarter was up from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion YoY. The company has been hard hit by one-time charges, write-offs and slumping commodity prices. “Average base metal prices were down significantly from average prices in the fourth quarter of 2007, with two of our major products, copper and zinc, down 45% and 55%, respectively,” said the company. Teck Cominco also wrote down a total of $844 million in goodwill, including on its Fording Canadian Coal Trust acquisition in 2008. Moody’s Ratings lowered its credit rank to Ba3 from Ba1, also giving the company a bad outlook.

Things are not looking good for consumer appliance maker Whirlpool. The company reported lower than expected quarterly earnings citing slumping sales thanks to weakening global demand, particularly in North American which is the companies largest market in term of dollar sales. Aggregate Whirlpool Q4 sales were $4.3 billion, with North American sales down 18% year over year to $2.5 billion. Whirlpool experienced a net operating loss of $20 million, compared to a net profit of $175 million in Q4 2007 in North America. Total Whirlpool Q4 profits were down 76% to $44 million ($0.60 per diluted share), from $187 million $2.38 per diluted share) in Q4 2007. The company plans additional cost cutting measures, which could see hundreds if not thousands of more job cuts from the company.

The world’s largest conglomerate, News Corp, has posted a massive $6.4 billion loss. News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal, Fox, MySpace, Dow Jones & Co, among other popular companies. News Corp would not break down net profits for any specific company, instead only posting aggregate numbers. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said, “our results for the quarter are a direct reflection of the grim economic climate,” News Corp continues to cut costs at Down Jones including with salary freezes, and job cuts, and says it expects to save the company more than $40 million by June 2010. The Wall Street Journal also announced it would cut 25 editorial jobs today.

Texas based Exxon mobile has just reached a significant milestone in the process breaking a world record. The company said today 2008 total profits were $45.22 billion, the highest amount ever recorded for a publicly traded company anywhere in the world. Exxon was still able to post this massive number despite Q4 revenue being down 33% to $84.7 billion thanks to lower and highly volatile crude and energy prices. Exxon Chairman Rex Tillerson said, “Exxon Mobil’s financial strength continued to support its disciplined capital investment approach in the midst of a growing global economic slowdown,”

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney has announced the company will cut 10,000 jobs in 2009. This number includes the latest 4,500 job cuts previously announced. McNerney said, “the global economy continues to weaken, and it’s affecting air traffic and financing,” hence the job cuts as Boeing tries to position itself during this tuff economic time. Boeing also just announced Q4 revenues declined to $12.7 billion from $17.5 billion as labor strike pushed airplane deliveries out of the quarter. Competitor Airbus sees a 60% drop in new airplane sales for 2009.