McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) Led by McRib Sales, FOREX to Weaken Results

McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) reported good and bad news today, as their sales of the popular McRib sandwich has increased sales figures for the quarter by 4.8 percent, but the foreign exchange will eat into all of that as it weakened to the point of driving down earnings for the quarter by a penny a share said the company. They're now looking at earnings coming in at 2 cents a share.

Same-store sales, measured by those being opened for 13 months or more, has sales increase by 4.9 percent in the U.S. and Europe, and by 2.4 percent in all other regions.

In the U.S., sales were also helped by growing sales of coffee and what are considered other value menu items.

Germany, Russia and France let European sales, with higher-end products leading in those regions, including McWraps, which were strong in the German market especially.

In Asia Australia and China led the way, although Japan weighed on McDonald's, performing weakly. The value menu was the catalyst in Asia, with services like drive-thru and delivery an important part of McDonald's success there.

They were hit particularly hard in Europe with Forex problems, which dragged the performance of the company to flat. Excluding the weak currency environment, McDonald's had a robust sales increase of 7.4 percent.

FOREX Helping FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC), Margins Up

FEI Company (NASDAQ:FEIC) has a lot of things going for it, including a favorable Forex impact which has helped the company recently.

That's far from the entire FEI story though, as they have a record backlog and gross margins have been moving higher.

Needham says, "FEI has enjoyed four consecutive quarters of strong bookings, with backlog currently at record levels. Gross margins have been trending higher, and our confidence in mgmt reaching its targeted long-term operating model is growing. The recent decline in the Euro against the dollar benefits FEIC, which has a high level of Euro-related op-ex. As a result of favorable Fx as well as given our expectation that business has remained strong across FEIC's major markets, we are adjusting our Q4 and 2011 numbers higher.

"We are raising our Q4 EPS estimate to $0.38 from $0.35 on revenues of $172.5M, up from $168.6M previously. Given signs of continued strong demand in FEI's major markets and its record backlog at the end of September ($440M), we are increasing our 2011 EPS estimate to $1.35 from $1.22 on revenues of $665M."

Needham maintains their "Buy" rating on FEI, which was trading at $24.70, gaining $0.63, or 2.62 percent at 2:47 PM EST. They increased their price target on them from $27 to $29.

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) Faces FOREX Challenges in Latest Quarter

Even with eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) is expected to increase margins and has strengths in several segments, all that could be negated by FOREX challenges, especially in relationship to the Euro and the British Pound.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) said, "We are modestly raising core estimates for 4Q10 and 2011 GMV and TPV based on Marketplaces improvements both in the U.S. and International, as well as PayPal Merchant Services strength. Additionally, we are tweaking Marketplaces take rates higher and raising overall margins slightly. However, the impact is muted somewhat by the weaker Euro (-6%) and British Pound (-3%) relative to spot rates coming out of 3Q earnings more than a month ago, which also weighs on cross-border activity which accounts for roughly 20% of Marketplaces and likely more than that for PayPal. For 4Q10 we remain at PF EPS of $0.47, for 2011 we go from $1.81 to $1.85."

Barclays maintains an "Equalweight" on eBay, which closed Tuesday at $29.14, falling $1.09, or 3.61 percent. Barclays has a price target of $29 on eBay, raising it from $27.

RUSAL (PA:RUSAL) Earnings Plummet on FOREX Costs

Earnings for RUSAL (PA:RUSAL) dropped 55 percent on foreign exchange losses during the latest quarter.

Net profit for the quarter ending September 30 was $29 million, down from the $64 million in earnings last year in the same quarter.

Taking away the foreign exchange costs, net profit for the quarter would have come in at $419 million, according to RUSAL.

Expenses in the quarter increased to $699 million, far above the $276 million in costs last year.

Going forward, RUSAL said this about the aluminum market: "Several factors point to encouraging prospects for the aluminium market: the revival of the domestic market, increased economic activity in Germany, South America and Asia, spot premiums reaching an all-time high, partly due to China becoming a net importer of aluminium."

RUSAL dropped to $18.50, losing $0.70, or 3.65 percent.