The impact of the recession that everyone hopes is passing plainly showed in first-quarter earnings, which began to come out last week. The overall average decline for 174 of the first companies reporting was 13.2% from the year-ago period; almost every major industry, except possibly cosmetics, felt the pinch. But with the U.S. economy clearly on the way to recovery, most businessmen were confident that sales and earnings would improve in the next quarter.
Not all companies suffered. International Business Machines' first-quarter profit set a record ($2.67 per share) for the period, a...
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