Toyota Motor Co. wrapped up one of the worst fiscal year’s in the company’s history with an unexpectedly strong final quarter in which it saw earnings more than quadruple.

Acknowledging the hardships faced since the disastrous earthquake and tsunami – which cost the maker 100s of thousands of units of lost production – Toyota President Akio Toyoda offered a more positive outlook for the future, though he cautioned there are still challenges ahead.

“Thanks to the concerted efforts of our employees, suppliers and dealers, we were able to recover production and sales faster than anticipated and achieved a strong result,” said Toyada, grandson of the automaker’s founder. “Our vision,” he added, “is to establish a strong business foundation that will ensure profitability under any kind of difficult business environment.”

Toyota quadrupled net income to 121 billion yen, $1.5 billion at current exchange rates, during the January to March period, the final quarter in the Japanese fiscal year. Last year’s first quarter felt the first effects of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, driving earnings down to just 25.4 billion yen.

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For the latest full year that ended March 31, Toyota reported earnings fell 30% to 283.6 billion yen, or $3.5 billion. But that was nonetheless better than the automaker’s original profit forecast of 200 billion yen, or $2.5 billion – and slightly exceeded analysts’ consensus. According to FactSet, the collective forecast for the year had been $3.49 billion.

Sales for latest quarter rebounded 23% to 5.7 trillion yen, or $71.3 billion.  For the full fiscal year they came to 18.58 trillion yen, or $232 billion, a 2% drop.

Looking forward, Toyota is now forecasting profits could climb to $9.5 billion for the fiscal year that began on April 1, 2012. In a conference call with reporters, Senior Managing Officer Takahiko Ijichi said the maker expects sales to jump 1.3 million units to 8.7 million cars, trucks and crossovers.

Much of that is expected to come from the restoration of full production following the March 2011 disaster and the concurrent recovery of lost market share. But Toyota also hopes to further build demand with new products – such as the expanding Prius “family” — and by expanding its penetration in both established and emerging markets. During his conference call, Ijichi noted the maker aims to achieve 1 million units of sales in China, up from 900,000 during the just-ended fiscal year.

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Regaining share in the critical U.S. market is one of Toyota’s major goals. It scored some successes during the January to March quarter with products like the redesigned Camry and the latest additions to the Prius family, such as the compact Prius C and larger Prius V. The entire hybrid line, starting with the original Prius hatchback, has fared well in the face of rising U.S. fuel prices.

In the last few months,” said Edmunds.com senior analyst Jessica Caldwell, “Toyota has made big strides to regain the U.S. market share it lost to its competitors.”

But data from research firm TrueCar.com has also shown that Toyota has been forced to sharply ramp up marketing expenses – including incentives – to rebuild U.S. demand.

The American fuel price spike has clearly helped the maker, the Prius surging to new records. But whether that pace will be maintained is uncertain. Past cycles show demand for hybrids dips sharply once fuel prices stabilize, as there are signs is now happening.

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The automaker also faces challenges due to the strong yen, which has cut into profits in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Toyota has been attempting to minimize the exchange rate impact by shifting more production of components and vehicles overseas.

That’s a strategy being echoed by its Japanese competitors – notably including Honda, which also showed signs of recovery in its latest quarterly earnings which jumped 61% during the January to March period.

But despite Toyota’s determination to regain its momentum it is facing some equally dogged competitors, including both General Motors – which regained its long-standing position to industry sales leader in 2011 – as well as Volkswagen AG, which landed in the number two slot.  VW has a stated goal of becoming the world’s biggest automaker before the end of the decade,

Toyota officials have never confirmed a goal of being – or returning to – number one.  But the sales targets for the coming fiscal year show the maker is not going to readily give up that mantle permanently.

GM (GM) posted a profit of $1 billion in the first quarter, beating Wall Street expectations on strong demand in its key North American market.

GM also said the U.S. economy was improving and it expected its core North American results in the second and third quarters to largely match the first quarter due to scheduled downtime at its large truck plants.

"We're clearly seeing some improvement in the (U.S.) economy," Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann told reporters. "It's a modest underlying improvement, but it's patchy and it won't necessarily all go in a straight line."

The quarter included the impact of $800 million in higher vehicle pricing and lower consumer incentives, half of which came in North America. Last year, GM offered heavy consumer incentives to drive sales in the U.S. market, something it did not do this year.

GM lost $256 million pretax in Europe, where it took a $590 million charge related to pension costs. Excluding one-time items related to the impairment of goodwill primarily in Europe, the No. 1 U.S. automaker reported a profit of 93 cents per share.

Analysts, on average, expected GM to earn 85 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income fell to $1 billion, or 60 cents a share, from $3.15 billion, or $1.77 a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Last year's quarter included a one-time gain of $1.5 billion related to the sale of stakes in Delphi and Ally.

Revenue for the quarter was $37.8 billion, up 4.4 percent from $36.2 billion a year ago.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Apple’s market muscle held firm Tuesday as the company — bolstered by thriving sales in Asia — surpassed analysts’ estimates and set second-quarter records in its sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

The tech titan posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion — second only to its all-time, quarterly revenue record of $46.33 billion, which it reported last December.

For the March quarter, Apple reported a net profit of $11.6 billion — or $12.30 per diluted share. A consensus estimate previously gathered by Thomson Reuters had predicted Apple would post quarterly revenue of $38.9 billion and $10.10 per share.

“We are very pleased,” Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during a conference call. He dubbed the company’s second-quarter performance “outstanding.”

During the same quarter in 2011, Apple posted earnings of about $6 billion or $6.40 a share on revenue of $24.7 billion.

International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple shares, which have been under pressure in recent weeks after hitting record levels, jumped in after-hours trading.

Apple said it sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter — an 88 percent spike from the same period in 2011. That surge was “led by our Asia-Pacific and Japan segments, where sales more than doubled year over year,” Oppenheimer said. Compared to the same period last year, iPhone sales were five times higher in China, helped by the launch of the iPhone 4S in that market.

Additionally, Apple sold 11.8 million iPads (up 151 percent from last year’s quarter) and 4 million Macs, a 7 percent rise compared to 2011’s second quarter, establishing new March-quarter records for both desk-tops and portables.

Oppenheimer pointed to the “education market” for its recent iPad success, saying that during the second quarter the company sold more than two iPads for every Mac “to our U.S. K-12 customers.”

The only slide for Apple came in its iPod division. The company sold 7.7 million units during the second quarter, a 15 percent decline from the same period in 2011.

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” Oppenheimer added. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.”

Leading up to Apple's announcement, made just after the closing bell, markets were jumpy given Apple’s massive footprint on the American financial landscape. Apple took some lumps, closing at $560.29 per share, down $11.41 or 2 percent.

But buoyed by the better-than-expected revenue and sales news, Apple’s shares rallied by 7 percent in after-market trading, recapturing nearly 50 percent of the correction the company experienced since its April highs, said Mark Newton, chief technical analyst at Greywolf E.P.

Newton further forecast “a bullish reversal by Friday, allowing for a likely retest of April highs in the weeks ahead.”

“Although (Apple) has shown above-average underperformance in the last few weeks, this was purely a short-term pullback as part of an overall uptrend,” Newton said. “And there hasn’t been sufficient weekly technical damage to turn overly negative on the shares."

Newton said, however, that “concerns remain” among investors about the “overall equity market” spanning the next four to six months.

But he added: “My feeling is that Apple should continue to show good technical relative strength versus the overall market and will require far greater signs of deterioration to warrant any type of cautious stance.”

At this stage, Newton foresees “an outside shot” at the company’s share price reaching $700 to $750 “before any additional weakness happens into the summer and fall months.”

Apple’s market muscle held firm Tuesday as the company revealed fresh revenues that surpassed earning estimates, bolstered by robust international sales of its gadgets.
 
The tech titan released fiscal second-quarter revenue of $39.2 billion, a net profit of $11.6 billion -- or $12.30 per diluted share. Those topped the consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters of $10.10 per share on revenue of $38.9 billion.
 
When compared to the same quarter in 2011, Apple posted solid gains as well. One year ago, Apple reported earning of $6.40 a share as its revenue surged 83 percent to $24.7 billion.
 
International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue, fueling positive news from the Cupertino headquarters.

Apple said it sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter -- an 88 percent spike from the same period in 2011. Additionally, it sold 11.8 million iPads (up 151 percent from last year’s quarter) and 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent rise compared to 2011’s second quarter. Apple’s iPod sales dropped by 15 percent from the same time last year, to 7.7 million units.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a written news release. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.”

Leading up to the release, the markets seemed jumpy, traders said, given Apple’s massive footprint on the American financial landscape. Apple took some lumps, closing at $560.29 per share, down $11.41 or 2 percent.

The company's stock was up 41.27, or 7.38 percent, to 601.82 in after-hours trading.

At the closing bell, the tech-rich NASDAQ (where Apple trades) closed at 2,962, down almost points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 74 points Tuesday to 13,001 while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained five points to 1,372.

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and Jon Fortt report on Apple's Q2 earnings results.

Facebook on Monday reported its first quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in at least two years, a sign that the social network's sizzling growth may be cooling as it prepares to go public in the biggest ever Internet IPO.

The company blamed the first-quarter decline, which surprised some on Wall Street, on seasonal advertising trends.

"It was a faster slowdown than we would have guessed," said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group.

"No matter how you slice it, for a company that is perceived as growing so rapidly, to slow so much on whatever basis - sequentially or annually - it will be somewhat concerning to investors if faced with a lofty valuation," Wieser said.

Facebook is preparing to raise at least $5 billion in an initial public offering that could value the world's largest social network at up to $100 billion.

"The biggest issue is the realization that Facebook is not going to have an easy time meeting high expectations of the public market," said Jeff Sica, chief investment officer of SICA Wealth Management, which manages more than $1 billion in client assets, real estate and private equity holdings. "It will affect how people look at the IPO."

Investors are still likely to sign up in droves for the IPO; However, growth concerns may make some investors less likely to keep the stock over the long term, he added.

"I'm still encouraging people to participate in the IPO, under the acknowledgement that it could be a bumpy ride," Sica said. "There are high expectations and I hate high expectations."

The company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard University dorm room in 2004, surpassed 900 million monthly active users in the first quarter and said its full-time staff grew by about 1,100 employees to 3,539 in the past 12 months, according to an updated filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Facebook also disclosed that it has agreed to pay Instagram $200 million if the company's recent deal to buy the photo-sharing start-up for about $1 billion does not go through.

Facebook said it paid $300 million in cash for Instagram, along with 23 million shares of Class B common stock. It said the fair value of its Class B common stock was $30.89 per share as of January 31.

Spending roughly doubled over the past 12 months, outpacing the 45 percent revenue increase during the period, it said.

Net income slid 12 percent to $205 million in the quarter, from $233 million a year earlier at the rapidly expanding company.

Facebook said its advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, typically slows down in the first three months of the year. The rapid advertising growth may have "partially masked" such trends to date, and seasonal impacts may be more pronounced in the future, it noted.

Revenue, which totaled $1.06 billion in the three months ended March 31, declined 6 percent from the fourth quarter. It was the first quarter-on-quarter drop since at least 2010.

"It was bound to happen. You are going to see a slowdown," said Anupam Palit, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital LLC, noting that it is harder to double revenue when the base is larger.

But he also said Facebook has not worked out how to make more money in some international markets where it is growing the fastest, such as Brazil, India and the Philippines.

"They have not cracked international markets yet, while others like Google do very well internationally," Palit added.

Apart from slowing growth, Facebook is also grappling with other issues. Yahoo Inc is suing it for patent infringement even as the social networking company tries to beef up its intellectual property arsenal. On Monday, it said it would pay $550 million for hundreds of patents from Microsoft Corp.

Facebook gets most of its revenue from advertising, but has a Payments business centered around Facebook Credits, a virtual currency used mainly to buy virtual goods within social games.

However, the company hinted at a possible an expansion of Facebook Credits into other areas.

Facebook gets a cut of up to 30 percent from virtual goods sales on its platform.

"In the future, if we extend Payments outside of games, the percentage fee we receive from developers may vary," the company said in its IPO filing on Monday.

Some investors expect e-commerce to be a major area of expansion for Facebook. Some industry experts said that if Facebook Credits were used for purchases of physical goods, the company's cut would have to be a lot lower than 30 percent.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Video rental company Netflix Inc reported a first-quarter loss that was not as steep as Wall Street feared but shares fell after disappointing guidance for subscriber additions next quarter.

Shares dropped 13.6 percent in after-hour trading from their earlier close at $101.84.

Investors are concerned about the company's guidance for subscriber additions in the second quarter, said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. Netflix said its net domestic streaming additions in the second quarter would be below 2010's second quarter, though it expects the total for the year to be "about the same as in 2010."

"They are giving a signal to the Street their growth story is over," said Pachter, who rates Netflix a "sell."

Netflix posted first-quarter revenue of $870 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier. Net income fell, and the company reported an earnings loss of 8 cents per share. Analysts had expected a loss of 27 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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Fannie Mae is short $4.6 billion and it wants the U.S. government to foot the bill.

The mortgage giant reported a net loss of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 after it got slammed by falling home prices. To offset the deficit that helped cause, its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, plans to submit a request to the Treasury for $4.571 billion, Fannie Mae said Wednesday.

The government rescued Fannie and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, the FHFA has controlled their financial decisions.

Taxpayers have spent more than $150 billion to prop up Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could top $259 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.

Fannie has received more than $116 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company. 

Fannie officials say losses have increased in recent quarters for two reasons: Some homeowners are paying less interest after refinancing at historically low mortgage rates; others are defaulting on their mortgages.

When property values drop, homeowners default, either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.

Fannie's October-December loss takes into account $2.6 billion in dividend payments to the government. That compares with a loss of $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

GM posted its highest annual profit ever in 2011 -- $7.6 billion -- two years after it emerged from bankruptcy protection post a government-led bailout.

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Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Things are looking up ... mostly. The General Motors headquarters January 10, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan.

Updated at 12:20 p.m. ET

General Motors posted flat fourth-quarter income Thursday but still managed to haul in $7.6 billion worth in profits last year, up 62 percent from the prior year.

It was the highest annual profit ever for the automaker, which emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2009 after a government-led bailout.

The U.S. government still owns 26.5 percent of the company and is waiting for the share price to rise before selling in an effort to recoup the bailout money. GM stock was up 6 percent at $26.43 in midday trading after the earnings announcement.

"We will build on these results as we bring more new cars, crossovers and trucks to market," CEO Daniel Akerson said in a statement.

Full-year revenue rose 11 percent to $105 billion.

North America led the way with a $7.2 billion pretax profit. But problems surfaced that could hurt future earnings. GM lost $700 million before taxes in Europe, and lost $100 million in South America.

"We obviously have work to do still and a long way to get to the objectives we ultimately want to get to," GM Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann told reporters.

"We clearly have work to do in Europe. We have work to do in the South America business. Frankly, we have work to do all around the company in terms of cost opportunity," he added.

GM'S fourth-quarter profit was flat with 2010. GM earned $500 million, or 28 cents per share. Revenue rose 3 percent to $38 billion. Before one-time items, GM earned 40 cents per share. Analysts expected earnings of 42 cents on revenue of $37.9 billion.

Ammann said GM has not gone far enough in cutting costs in its European operations, but declined to provide a 2012 financial forecast for a unit that the No. 1 U.S. automaker has struggled to return to profitability. Overall, GM expects 2012 sales to top the $150.3 billion it saw in 2011 and its market share to remain flat.

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Last year, GM made the bulk of its income in North America, where its pretax profit totaled $7.2 billion. International Operations, which includes Asia, made $1.9 billion before taxes, but that was down.

During the year, GM's global sales rose 7.6 percent to 9.03 million vehicles to help it reclaim the title of world's largest automaker from Toyota Motor Corp.

This year, GM expects to increase its revenue as global auto sales grow and it charges more for models. However, it will make less money per vehicle as the mix of sales continues to shift to cars from trucks, which have bigger sticker prices. It also expects to invest $8 billion on new products and technology, and says pension expenses will rise. The company wants to keep expenses down by freezing its underfunded U.S. pension plan for salaried workers.

GM said 47,500 blue-collar workers in the U.S. will get $7,000 profit-sharing checks in March. The checks are based on North American performance and are a record for the company.

The company has placed Vice Chairman Steve Girsky in charge of the European management board and is adding executives in preparation for restructuring. Factory closures and layoffs are likely but could provoke a fight with powerful labor unions.

Girsky has said GM intends to fix the European unit, made up of the Opel and Vauxhall brands, and keep it in the company. GM came close to selling the unit in 2009.

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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

ExxonMobil Corp. posted fourth-quarter net income Tuesday of $9.4 billion, up 2 percent from the same quarter a year ago and slightly above market expectations, helped by rising crude oil prices.

It's also more money than The Bahamas' annual GDP, according to the CIA Factbook.

The net income (excluding special items) equates to $1.97 a share, up from $1.85 per share in the comparable quarter. Revenue for the largest U.S. oil company rose 16 percent to $121.61 billion. Analysts expected earnings of $1.96 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Oil companies around the world benefited from a jump in oil prices. Crude futures traded in New York jumped about 25 percent to end the fourth quarter at $98.83 per barrel. Brent prices gained 5 percent during the quarter.

Fourth-quarter production of natural gas and crude oil dropped 9 percent, which Barclays Capital analyst Paul Cheng said might have been partly caused by reduced European natural gas sales due to warm weather.

"Even taking this into consideration, production volume was disappointing," Cheng wrote in a note to investors.

While full-year 2011 output rose 1 percent, capital expenditure was at the top of Exxon's multi-year guidance range, at a record $36.8 billion, and oilfield spending generally is seen rising even further this year.

Spending billions more just to maintain steady output has become a running theme for the world's major oil companies. Chevron Corp increased its 2012 capital spending plans to $32.7 billion after its 2011 budget came in $3 billion higher than originally expected.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Apple’s share price soared to record levels Wednesday after the high-tech giant posted results that blew past expectations.

Apple was up more than $28 a share or nearly 7 percent to $448.57, a record high, after it reported results late Tuesday that were far higher than forecasts as consumers snapped up near-unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads, sending its shares into record territory.

Apple said its quarterly revenue and earnings were the highest ever.

iPhone sales accounted for more than half of Apple's revenue for the first time, as 37 million handsets were sold in the quarter, generating more than $24 billion in revenue. That was 53 percent of the total of $46 billion, which handily beat the average Wall Street analyst estimate of $39 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Apple posted overall profits of $13 billion -- $1 billion a week -- for the holiday quarter, more than double the $6 billion posted a year ago. Apple earnings of a $13.87 per share were far beyond the $10.04 per share forecast on average by analysts, according to FactSet.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

The tech giant was a standout in what has otherwise been a fairly lackluster earnings season. So far, 58 percent of companies have beaten forecasts, while at this stage in past earnings seasons 70 percent had topped estimates.

"Apple's results were tremendous and the company continues to distance itself from industry peers," said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones. "Just the magnitude of the iPhone beat is very impressive."

Apple shares, already trading near record levels, jumped 9 percent in after-hours trading on the earnings news.

"It's a monster quarter," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. "Their guidance is strong too, it's a holiday quarter. There's just a worldwide demand for Apple products."

"Going into 2012 I expect strength of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad should carry on into the year," said Hendi Susanto of Gabelli & Co. "Apple still has some tailwind including opening up new retail stores and expanding its distribution channels."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

A better-than-expected jobless claims report, good demand at European bond auctions and less-than-disastrous earnings reports from two major banks helped lift U.S. stocks at midday Thursday.

But the gains were subdued amid continued nervousness over the financial crisis in Europe/

Just before midday EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up a 0.25 percent, the Nasdaq was up 0.83 percent and the broader S&P 500 had gained 0.51 percent. If the S&P maintains its gains by the close, it would mark its third straight advancing session.

Bank of America Corp shares rose as the top boost to the benchmark S&P. The bank reported a fourth-quarter profit, reversing a year-earlier loss, boosted by one-time items and lower expenses for bad loans.

Fellow financial Morgan Stanley jumped after the Wall Street bank posted a quarterly loss but still managed to top analysts' expectations.

"It's the reaction to Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, to their earnings reports. People were expecting absolute disaster, it wasn't an absolute disaster and people looked at those numbers and walked away thinking both those companies wouldn't need to raise more capital," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

Financial shares have rallied since the start of the year. The S&P financial index <.GSPF> is up 8 percent for 2012, helping to push the S&P 500 up more than 4 percent. The financial index was up 0.8 percent for the session.

But gains were muted as investors showed some cautiousness after a rally that has sent the S&P 500 to levels not seen since late July.

"We are due for at least some consolidation. We had a pretty good rally here and we broke out above the old October high so it's only natural that we get some backing and filling here," said Massocca.

In a sign that investor nervousness over the euro zone's debt crisis was easing, Spain and France both drew strong demand at government debt auctions.

The Nasdaq got a boost from eBay Inc , which reported better-than-expected results after the close on Wednesday. The stock was up 4.8 percent to $31.80.

Transportation stocks moved higher after Union Pacific Corp reported higher quarterly profit and revenue that beat estimates. Union Pacific was up 3.8 percent to $114.02, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average <.DJT> gained 1.4 percent.

New data generally supported the view the U.S. economy continued to improve at a moderate pace. Weekly jobless claims dropped to a near four-year low, consumer prices showed inflation remained in check, while factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region edged up, but less than expected.

However, housing starts dipped, suggesting the sector was still a ways from strengthening.

After the close, quarterly reports are due from technology bellwethers Google Inc , International Business Machines Corp , Intel Corp as well as Microsoft Corp.

Reuters contributed to this report.