Company News: India airline orders 20 Boeing 737s

Jet Airways, India’s largest private airline, has ordered 20 single-aisle 737-800 jets, Boeing Co. said Tuesday.

The deal is worth $1.5 billion at list prices, Boeing said, though customers typically negotiate steep discounts.

The short- to medium-range 737 is Boeing’s best-selling airplane.

As of Sept. 30, Boeing said it had unfilled orders of nearly 1,800 737s worth more than $125 billion at list prices.

U.S. Bancorp said Tuesday third-quarter earnings slipped 2 percent as operating expenses and credit provisions rose amid trouble in the mortgage and housing markets.

Net income fell to $1.18 billion, or 67 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30 from $1.2 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share rose because the company had fewer shares outstanding in the latest period than a year ago.

Analysts expected a profit of 66 cents per share, according to Thomson Financial.

Genentech Inc. barely beat Wall Street estimates for the third quarter, and many analysts are skeptical that the world’s second-largest biotech company can maintain its scorching momentum amid new competition and a saturated market.

Genentech reported Monday that net profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 was $685 million, or 64 cents per share, up 21 percent from $568 million, or 53 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue was $2.91 billion, up 22 percent from $2.38 billion in the third quarter last year.

Not counting expenses, including those from the $919 million buyout of biotech company Tanox Inc. last quarter, the company earned $778 million, or 73 cents per share, up 22 percent from a year ago.

McClatchy Co., one of the nation’s biggest newspaper companies, reported sharply lower profit and revenue for its third quarter Tuesday and said it would take an accounting charge to reflect the poor conditions in the newspaper business and its falling share price.

McClatchy said it was still determining what size that charge would be and expected to disclose it in the company’s quarterly regulatory filing on or before Nov. 9.

Before accounting for the charge, McClatchy reported preliminary earnings of $23.5 million, or 29 cents per share, for the three-month period ending in September, down from $51.8 million, or 64 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue fell 9.2 percent in the quarter to $540.3 million versus $595.1 million in the same period in 2006.