Earnings

Yesterday Google accidentally fired off its earnings announcement three hours ahead of schedule and profits fell quite short of expectations.

Google's quarterly earnings report was mistakenly released while markets were open, instead of after. A 20 percent drop in profits, as prices of online and mobile ads decline, sent shares down immediately.

The financial sector is doing better than last year on a bumper mortgage business and lower loan-loss reserves.

The third-quarter earnings season kicked off today with an ominous warning about global growth from the IMF. A weak consolation for Americans is that we are the only major economy where the IMF expects decent growth in the next year.

Third-quarter earnings season begins this week, with some analysts predicting the first decline in S&P 500 profits since 2009.

Shares in the office supply store Staples are down 15 percent this morning after the company said its sales dropped 5.5 percent last quarter. Meanwhile, the discount retailer Target said it made a $700 million profit last quarter

Pfizer seems to be weathering the loss of its patent for Lipitor just fine. The drug company says its second quarter profit jumped 25 percent. That's despite lower revenue, and competition from generics for its cholesterol-fighting blockbuster.

The British oil company BP is reporting a sharp drop in profits. The company made just $238 million last quarter, compared with more than $5 billion a year ago.

A lot of the earnings reports we've seen so far this week have been disappointing, including Facebook.