Earnings: Oil Booms, Amazon Struggles

ByABC News
July 28, 2006, 3:54 PM

July 28, 2006 — -- In the second week of the earnings season, big oil reaped even bigger profits, while some transportation companies also saw improvement.

Here is a look at the performance of some of the significant companies reporting quarterly results this week and expectations for what's to come:

Thanks to oil at $70 a barrel and gasoline at $3 a gallon, the major oil companies this week all reported huge profits for the quarter ending June 30. All told, the Big 5 oil companies reported more than $34 billion in profits, up 36 percent from a year ago.

ExxonMobil, the world's largest company by market capitalization, made $10.36 billion in profit. That is 36 percent above the same period last year and is the second-highest quarterly profit reported ever by a company. Put another way, that profit equals $114 million a day, $80,000 a minute

Shell earned $7.32 billion, up 40 percent from a year ago. Despite difficulties in oil production in regions like Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico, the higher oil prices made up for the losses.

ConocoPhillips, the nation's third-largest oil company, earned $5.18 billion, 65 percent higher than the same time frame last year.

Chevron profits soared 18 percent to set a quarterly record for the 127-year-old company. It earned $4.35 billion for the quarter ending in June from revenue totaling $5.35 billion.

BP reported a 30 percent increase in profits, earning $7.27 billion.

US Airways Group reported a second-quarter profit of $305 million compared with a loss of $3 million from a year ago. The airline includes America West and the formerly bankrupt US Airways. US Airways joins Southwest and AirTran, which reported larger profits for the quarter.

UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, is expected to post profits next week, a first in six years. Why the recent turnaround? Fewer flights that are filled with people paying higher prices. According to industry analyst Harrell Associates, business fares were up 18 percent while leisure fares were up 9 percent.