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Tuesday, July 7

ConocoPhillips sees 1.86 million BOE production(8:42 am ET)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- ConocoPhillips (COP: news, chart, profile) said Tuesday it expects second-quarter production of 1.86 million barrel-of-oil equivalent per day, including Syncrude and excluding Lukoil. Exploration expenses are expected to be approximately $225 million before-tax for the quarter. Refining and marketing results are expected to be impacted by significantly compressed light-heavy crude differentials, low worldwide distillate margins and the impact of inventory levels, the company said.

Greenbrier swings to loss after goodwill charge(6:26 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Railroad car manufacturer Greenbrier Cos. Inc. (GBX: news, chart, profile) said Tuesday that it swung to a fiscal third-quarter net loss of $50.5 million, or $3 a share, from a profit of $8.1 million, or 49 cents a share, as a disagreement with General Electric (GE: news, chart, profile) continues. Total revenue dropped 36% to $244.4 million. The group said its loss was caused by a goodwill impairment charge of $55.7 million. Excluding that charge, earnings for the quarter would have been 3 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting a loss of 2 cents a share on revenue of $228.7 million. The group said it's still in talks with General Electric over the industrial giant's desire to reduce a multi-year contract. Greenbrier said that GE has unilaterally reduced the number of railcars it would accept for delivery. The group added that it believes that GE is in breach of its obligations under the contract. Greenbrier said it will cease new railcar production at its Concarril plant in Mexico and furlough another 550 workers.

Finnair traffic down 13.4%(2:40 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Finnish airline Finnair (FNNNF: news, chart, profile) said Tuesday that total traffic in June fell 13.4% and the number of passengers carried declined 12.2% to 641,989 as demand continues to weaken. The group said the lower demand reduced the average price per passenger kilometer by more than 18% for the second quarter as a whole. Capacity was down 14.2% in June compared to a year earlier, resulting in a 0.6 percentage point increase in load factor to 74%.

Japan Aeon's first-quarter profit slips 62%(2:35 am ET)
TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Japanese retailer Aeon Co. (JP:8267: news, chart, profile) Tuesday posted a 62% percent fall in operating profit to 8.72 billion yen ($91.5 million) in its first quarter ended in May from the same quarter a year ago. Aeon is also a majority owner of U.S. women's apparel retailer Talbots Inc. (TLB: news, chart, profile) . For the full year through February, the company kept its operating profit forecast of 130 billion yen to 140 billion yen, which was above an average estimate of 128.7 billion yen in a poll of 13 analysts by Thomson Reuters.

Michael Page gross profit drops 45%(2:31 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Recruitment firm Michael Page International (UK:MPI: news, chart, profile) said Tuesday that its second-quarter gross profit fell 45% to 83.8 million pounds ($136.2 million) as earnings declined across all its regions. The group said that while market conditions continued to weaken, the rate of decline in the U.K. has slowed and gross profit in the region was at a similar level to the first quarter of the year. Group headcount declined by 429, or around 10%. "As we enter the seasonally quiet summer period, we anticipate a challenging third quarter," the group said.
Monday, July 6

Chubb may face $2 bln in D&O losses, analyst says(12:34 pm ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Chubb Corp. (CB: news, chart, profile) may face $2 billion in losses from directors and officers insurance policies it has sold as litigation surges in the wake of the financial crisis and recession, Barclays Capital analyst Jay Gelb wrote in a note to investors Monday. "Chubb does not appear appropriately reserved in this line," the analyst said. "If Chubb's 2008 U.S. D&O accident year loss ratio of 78% rose to the peak developed loss ratio over the past 10 years of 120% (which occurred in 2002 due to the tech bubble/IPO laddering), we estimate Chubb could report additional D&O losses of $2 billion, pre-tax over several years." Gelb cut his price target on Chubb shares to $41 from $43, but kept his equal weight rating. That's because Chubb shares trade at a historically low one times book value. Chubb shares rose 1.1% to $39.23 during afternoon trading on Monday.