Halftime Report: Is Fear Of A Weak 3Q Overblown?

Coca-Cola told analysts that currency exchange rates sliced its operating income by 7 percent and its net revenue by 5 percent in the quarter. McDonald's said exchange rates reduced its per-share earnings by 8 cents to $1.43 per share. Both companies expect the drag to continue in this quarter, which ends Dec. 31.

Some traders see foreign-exchange adjustments as yet another way for companies to game their numbers or explain away weak performance.

"You definitely didn't hear anything when the dollar was falling about how it was juicing returns then," said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial Wealth Advisors in Oklahoma City.

Longer-term investors can take comfort that the pullback is part of the regular ebb and flow of the business cycle, says Bernard Schoenfeld, senior investment strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management in New York.

"They're not losses, they're just less growth," Schoenfeld says of the recent reports. "It's not unusual to have a pause this far into a recovery period."

___

Rexrode reported from New York.

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

« First ‹ Previous 1 2 3 4