Knocking success

A year ago, when markets were plunging, a down day was all of that: The numbers sank with little hope financial news could provide any traction at all.

What a difference a year makes.

With U.S. markets falling Tuesday, mixed news from retailers provided enough of an uplift to put an early-morning hangover back to rights. Markets turned up at least enough to turn in a positive day.

Home Depot offered some mixed news, reporting that profits had declined 8.9 percent from a year ago in the three months ending Nov. 1, The New York Times reported.

Reading between the lines, however, business improved in California, Florida and Arizona -- areas hit hardest by the downturn in the housing market, the Times said.

In the discount arena, Target stores earned $436 million, or 58 cents a share, August through October, compared with 49 cents, or $369 million, a year ago. Department store Saks, meanwhile, made a profit of $1.9 million in the same three months, a sigh of relief compared with the $43.7 million lost in the same period a year ago.

Banks have made larger profits and larger headlines, especially given the public whiplash over bailout funds propping up the industry while Main Street loses jobs.

Thomas DiNapoli, the New York state comptroller, said Wall Street was poised to break its profit record. Four banks alone -- Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase's investment division -- earned $22.5 billion January through September, the comptroller said.

"The national economy is slowly improving, but Wall Street has recovered much faster than anyone had envisioned," DiNapoli said in a statement.

But with profits come bonuses and with bonuses, bad blood, as the public stews about the millionaires it rescued. The top six banks have set aside $112 billion for compensation checks for the first nine months of the year, despite the economic downturn.

Recognizing a public relations crisis was building steam, Goldman Sachs said Tuesday it would spend $500 million to help small businesses with education, a mentoring program and access to capital.

Several media reports jumped on the program, calling it a thinly veiled apology for its profiteering ways and for Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein's recent statement that the bank was "doing God's work."

The bank Rolling Stone magazine derided as "the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity" was trying to rescue its "battered image," the Times said.

The Atlantic Magazine quickly drubbed the program. "Formal business education is not totally worthless. Just mostly worthless," Daniel Indiviglio wrote.

As for mentoring, "all that flash trading experience will give them lots of practical advice too for bait-and-tackle shop owners," Indiviglio wrote sarcastically.

As for opening access to capital, "some people put a higher portion of their income than that into their church offering cup each year," he wrote.

In market movement Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.55 percent, while the Shanghai Composite index in China added 0.62 percent. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.32 percent. The Sensex in India fell 0.3 percent.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2 percent.

In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 in Britain added 0.34 percent, while the DAX 30 in Germany rose 0.7 percent. The CAC 40 in France rose 0.65 percent, while the pan-European DJ Stoxx 50 rose 0.32 percent.