Market Minute: Disney Beats Despite Flop; Cloudy Quarter for First Solar
Three entertainment giants post earnings, and it's not all fun and games. Those stories and more are what's making business new Wednesday.
The Dow industrials (^DJI) fell 93 points Tuesday, their biggest loss in nearly six weeks. The Standard & Poor's 500 (^GPSC) lost 9, and the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC) dropped 27 points.
Walt Disney's (DIS) quarterly earnings edged just slightly higher. Strong results at the company's theme parks and its ESPN network were offset by problems at the box office for "The Lone Ranger" movie. Disney expects to take a loss of up to $190 million on that flop.
But Time Warner's (TWX) was helped by strong showings for "The Great Gatsby" and "Man of Steel." Its profit jumped 87 percent.
21st Century Fox (FOX, FOXA), the media company recently spun off from News Corp. (NWS), says its operating net fell from a year ago, but revenue growth was strong.
Some clouds on the horizon for First Solar (FSLR). Its net tumbled by 70 percent from a year ago and the solar panel maker lowered its outlook for the rest of the year. First Solar stock has jumped more than 50 percent so far this year, but it's set to fall Wednesday.
One more earnings for you: AOL (AOL), which produces this report, posted better-than-expected results. It also agreed to buy Adap.tv for more than $400 million to boost its online video segment.
The bidding for Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) keeps going higher. Bloomberg reports that Amgen (AMGN) has raised its offer to $130 dollars a share, after Onyx rejected an earlier bid of $120 a share.
China has fined Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and four other international milk suppliers a total of $108 million for price fixing. China has been cracking down on foreign businesses, with other companies facing bribery and other charges.
And Monsanto (MON) raised its quarterly dividend by 5.5 cents a share, an increase of about 15 percent.
-Produced by Drew Trachtenberg.
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