Apple, Dow drive U.S. 4th-quarter profits to 19-year high

“U.S. corporations are set to report their most profitable fourth quarter on record as companies from Apple Inc. to Dow Chemical Co. feed the demand for iPads, caustic soda and capital goods that’s bolstering the economy,” Thomas Black reports for Bloomberg.

MacDailyNews Take: Mmm, caustic soda.

Black continues, “Earnings per share for all Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies are expected to have risen about 20 percent to $22.05 for the three months ended Dec. 31, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Profits excluding the financial industry may have climbed 12 percent, forecasts indicate.”

“Technology and industrial companies paved the way for what may have been the strongest year for U.S. profits since 2007 and the best fourth quarter since Bloomberg began keeping the data in 1992,” Black reports. “Apple’s net income in its fiscal first quarter ended in December rose 47 percent to $4.97 billion, or $5.34 a share, according to the average of estimates. Sales for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers improved during the holiday season, said Michael Yoshikami, chief investment strategist at Walnut Creek, California-based YCMNet, which owns Apple shares.”

Full article here.