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Business Week

September 7th, 2009

(pdf scan)

NUMBERS

PROFITS PERK UP AT LARGE U.S. COMPANIES

Playing catch-up:

Net income reported by many of America's most profitable companies remains below year-earlier levels.

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Companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index reported operating profits of $122 billion in the second quarter—much better than the inflation-adjusted losses of $800 million reported for the fourth quarter of 2008. But earnings remain down from a year earlier, and many sectors have yet to see profit margins improve.