Entergy Corporation (ETR) earlier today announced that it expects GAAP earnings and operational earnings to be approximately $2.31 per share and $2.39 per share, respectively, in the third quarter of 2009. This is low compared to the year-ago GAAP numbers of $2.41 per share and operational results of $2.50 per share.   The anticipated decrease in the quarter’s operational earnings is due primarily to lower results at the Utility, Parent and Other segment, partially offset by increased earnings at Non-nuclear Wholesale Assets segment. Utility, Parent & Other is expected to clock lower year-over-year operational earnings in third quarter 2009, primarily due to the absence of the 2008 adjustment reducing income tax expense and higher operation and maintenance expense. Entergy's Non-nuclear Wholesale Assets quarterly operational results are expected to improve due to the absence of the 2008 adjustment increasing income tax expense on account of the redemption of an ...

Entergy Corporation’s (ETR) utility subsidiary Entergy Arkansas has requested from the Arkansas Public Service Commission a $223 million hike in the base rate late last week. Entergy Arkansas supplies electricity to 684,000 customers spread across 63 counties in the state of Arkansas. The requested hike was to cover the cost of purchase of the Ouachita plant and restoration costs associated with the January 2009 ice storm in northern Arkansas. As per company estimations, this would raise the bill of an average residential customer with a monthly consumption of 1,000 kilowatt-hours by $7.86. Entergy Arkansas officials, however, feel that the actual burden would be much less. The improvement is expected to stem from lower fuel costs, which would improve on account of a decrease in natural gas prices. New Orleans-based Entergy is primarily engaged in electric power production and retail distribution of power. With 30,000MW of ...

div align=”justify”The -3.8% GDP number reported Friday was slightly ahead of the -5.4% consensus but the discrepancy was entirely accounted for by inventory accumulation, which contributed +1.3% to the figure. Real final sales were down about 5.1%, close to the consensus expectation. Housing was worth a negative 0.85% in line with recent quarterly trends but the decline in broader consumption spending was a much bigger negative, and nonresidential fixed investment (notably spending on equipment and software) nosedived. emstrongThere was a collapse in both exports and imports, reflecting the slump in global trade evident from recent Asian trade statistics/strong/em (span class=”blsp-spelling-error” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″eg/span Korean exports down almost 33% in January), although these netted out in the GDP calculation. In addition to inventories, there were two odd positive contributors to GDP growth; personal expenditures on gas/oil added +0.63% to GDP and personal expenditures on electricity/gas at home added +0.42% to GDP, for an …