Given yesterday's market gyrations and Fed rate cut, it wouldn't be a surprise if many people missed these news items yesterday.
DuPont Co. and Johnson & Johnson, two companies that employ 14,400 people in the Philadelphia region, issued fourth-quarter earnings results on Tuesday. DuPont reported lower net income, but managed to beat analysts' estimates. Johnson & Johnson's earnings were 10 percent higher.
These are giants in the chemicals and health-care industries. But their conference calls were drowned out by the wail of worry emanating from the world's stock markets.
At any other time, a 10 percent increase in the worldwide sales of Remicade, the drug developed by Horsham-based Centocor Inc. , would warrant a second look. At $3.33 billion in sales, Remicade is one of the most lucrative drugs to emerge from Philadelphia's life-sciences sector.
Perhaps on another day, investors might have paid attention when DuPont chief executive officer Charles O. Holliday Jr. explained how the Wilmington company has benefited from compound annual sales growth rates of 18 percent in Asia's emerging markets.
It's hard to focus on tales of growth when so many are nervous about recession.
