Frontline Beats Street, Sinks New Ship Orders

Oil shipper Frontline(FRO Quote) easily surpassed Wall Street forecasts with its latest quarterly earnings, but weak shipping rates continued to hang over the industry, severely shrinking the company's profit.

With demand looking to stay soft into summer, the world's largest petroleum carrier also said in its first-quarter earnings report released Thursday that it will scrap half a billion dollars worth of new-ship orders.

Frontline, based in Bermuda, reported a 65% decline in earnings, to $76.6 million, or 98 cents a share, from $221 million, or $2.95 a share a year earlier. Analysts were looking for per-share earnings of 69 cents a share. ...