Tough Times for Big Names

Earnings season is underway again, and there has been some very rough news for some of America's most venerable and best-known brands. Reporting this week:

• Coca-Cola announced yesterday that its quarterly global soda sales increased by just 1 percent in the third quarter. Coke's shares lost 6 percent on the news, the stock's biggest one-day drop in six years.
• McDonald's reported that same-store sales dropped by 3.3 percent in the third quarter. Within the U.S., same-store sales fell by 4.1 percent in September alone - the worst domestic month for the Golden Arches since February 2003.
• On Monday, IBM reported that its revenues in the third quarter dropped by 4 percent, and profits dropped by almost half, to just $18 million for the quarter. It was the tenth straight quarter that Big Blue's sales were flat or declining.