Exxon quarterly earnings exceed $8B

DALLAS (AP) ? Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the fifth highest quarterly profit for any public company in history on Thursday, and with oil prices above $70 a barrel it could go down as the company’s weakest quarter for the year.

Exxon Mobil’s first-quarter was lower than its record fourth-quarter, when the world’s largest oil company reported the highest profits ever for any publicly traded company. And the earnings, which rose 7 percent to more than $8 billion, still fell short of analysts’ estimates.

But in what is sure to spur the growing furor over outsized energy industry earnings, Exxon Mobil’s massive profits may only increase in 2006 as it benefits from rising crude-oil prices and production, analysts say.

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? Popping out of a year-end rut, the economy zipped ahead at the fastest pace in 2 1/2 years during the first quarter of 2006 as consumers picked up spending and businesses regained their footing.

Inflation looked tame, too, though the latest figures didn’t include last week’s oil-price spike.

Gross domestic product advanced at a 4.8 percent pace in the January-to-March quarter. That marked a rebound from the feeble 1.7 percent rate in the final quarter of 2005, when fallout from the Gulf Coast hurricanes, including high energy prices, prompted people and companies to tighten their belts.

An inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve showed that core prices _ excluding food and energy _ rose by 2 percent, down from 2.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Bush said Friday that taxing enormous oil industry profits is not the way to calm Americans’ anxieties about pain at the gas pump, and that his “inclination and instincts” are that major oil companies are not intentionally overcharging drivers.

Bush’s remarks suggested the former Texas oilman is unlikely to take harsh action against oil companies despite public anger about the rising cost of fuel. Gasoline is averaging $2.92 a gallon across the country, up 69 cents from a year ago, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge report.

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SEATTLE (AP) ? Microsoft Corp. shares dipped to a new 52-week low Friday after the company said it planned to significantly beef up investments in many areas where it is not dominant, but refused to provide details.

Analysts said such investments, while risky, may pay off in the long term but could hurt more immediate financial results at the world’s largest software maker.

The change in strategy was particularly stinging because Microsoft executives have long been touting a wave of major product launches, whetting many analysts’ appetites for profits in the coming months and next fiscal year.

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DETROIT (AP) ? Auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., which is restructuring under bankruptcy protection, said Friday it lost $56 million in March.

Delphi reported $1.75 billion in revenues for the month, with 60 percent of those sales coming from former parent General Motors Corp. and its affiliates.