Finances

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC), provider of retail, commercial and corporate banking services, reported its annual and quarterly earnings on January 11.

Wells Fargo reported quarterly revenue of $21.9 billion, an increase of 7% from the same period last year. The company also reported revenue of $86.1 billion for fiscal year 2012. This represents an increase of 6% from fiscal year 2011.

Wells Fargo reported net income of $5.1 billion for the quarter, an increase of 24% from the same period last year. The company also reported net income of $18.9 billion for fiscal year 2012. This represents an increase of 19% from fiscal year 2011.

"2012 was an outstanding year for Wells Fargo," said Chairman and CEO John Stumpf. "We saw the continued benefits of our diversified business model and reported record full year and fourth quarter earnings, robust deposit and solid loan growth, and strong performance across our business units. The Company's success is due to our more than 265,000 team members who remained focused on our customers and on our vision to satisfy all of our customers' financial needs."

Wells Fargo was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company operates 9,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs in 35 countries.

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) shares ended the week at $35.10.

Ruby Tuesday Reports Quarterly Earnings

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (RT), a casual dining restaurant chain, reported its quarterly earnings on January 9.

The company reported revenue of $304.23 million for the quarter. This represents a slight decrease from the same period last year when the company reported revenue of $307.4 million.

Ruby Tuesday reported a net loss of $15.07 million for the quarter. The company reported a net loss of $2 million during the same quarter last year.

"I am honored and excited to be leading this great company and look forward to working with the board and the management team to drive profitable sales growth and create significant shareholder value going forward," said JJ Buettgen, President and CEO. "We were pleased to report our second consecutive quarter of positive same-restaurant sales in this challenging economic environment and are intently focused on consistently and profitably growing same-restaurant sales at our Ruby Tuesday concept. However, given the uncertain and volatile consumer spending environment, as well as the level of competitive intensity we have seen in the restaurant sector over the last several months, we are projecting approximately flat same-restaurant sales for the year."

Ruby Tuesday was founded in 1920 in Maryville, Tennessee. The company owns and operates 714 Ruby Tuesday restaurants and has over 16,000 employees.

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (RT) shares ended the week at $7.84.

WD-40 Company Reports Quarterly Earnings

WD-40 Company (WDFC), provider of multi-purpose maintenance products worldwide, reported its quarterly earnings on January 8.

The company reported quarterly revenue of $95.3 million. This represents an increase of 12% from the same period last year when the company reported revenue of $85 million.

The company reported net income of $10.9 million. This represents an increase of 61% from the same period last year when the company reported net income of $6.8 million.

"We are pleased with our solid revenue growth during the first quarter, particularly in our multi-purpose maintenance products, and because we were able to hit our goal of a 50% gross margin, we achieved solid growth in our net income as well," said Garry Ridge, President and CEO. "We have remained disciplined in building our business for long-term, sustainable growth by implementing our core strategic drivers, and the results of the first quarter show a solid start to the year. In fact, the first quarter of 2013 was the best sales quarter in company history."

WD-40 Company was founded in 1953 in San Diego, California. The company employs 347 people.

WD-40 Company (WDFC) shares ended the week at $50.95.

The Dow started the week at 13,436 and closed at 13,489. The S&P 500 started the week at 1,466 and ended at 1,472. The NASDAQ started the week at 3,089 and finished at 3,126.

Bond sales reached $52.4 billion for the week ending January 11. This represents the most activity in any one week since sales reached $60.4 billion the week ending March 9, 2012.

Bond yields reached 3.54% on January 9 according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "Investors are showing stronger appetite for risk, luring more foreign banks into selling dollar debt," said Timothy Cox of Mizuho Securities USA, Inc. "Year-end is behind us so people can take a little bit more risk; you don't have the window dressing that you have at the end of the year, when people keep their portfolios fairly clean."

Daimler AG and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA led the way, selling $3 billion and $3.5 billion of dollar-denominated bonds, respectively. Daimler sold $750 million of two-year floating rate notes, $1.25 billion of three-year debt and $1 billion of five-year securities. Intesa sold $2 billion of three-year securities and $1.5 billion of five-year debentures.

This rise in the sale of corporate debt comes after 22 out of 27 companies reporting earnings from the S&P 500 index posted earnings that beat analyst estimates. In addition, 19 reported sales that exceeded estimates. "Europe looks calm and the world banking system has strengthened," said James Kochan, Chief Fixed-Income Strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management LLC. "Yields are near record lows in investment grade and appetite remains strong."

The 10-year Treasury note yield finished the week at 1.88% while the 30-year Treasury note yield finished the week at 3.05%.

On January 10, Freddie Mac released the results of its weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS). The results show fixed mortgage rates rising after the release of December's employment report.

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.4% this week. This represents an increase from last week when it averaged 3.34%. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.89%.

The 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 2.66% this week. This represents an increase from last week when it averaged 2.64%. One year ago at this time, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.16%.

"Fixed rate mortgage rates increased slightly following a positive employment report for December," said Frank Nothaft, Vice President and Chief Economist at Freddie Mac. "The economy added 155,000 jobs, above the consensus market forecast, and November's job growth was revised upward by another 24,000 workers. This helped keep the unemployment rate steady at 7.8%, the lowest since December 2008. For all of 2012, 1.86 million jobs were created representing the largest annual gain since 2006."

The money market fund finished this week at 0.5%. The 1-year CD finished at 0.7%.