Google's Q3 eases fears over ad market, costs (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc's results trounced Wall Street expectations with the help of strong advertising sales and deft cost controls, driving its shares roughly 6 percent higher.

The Internet search and advertising leader, benefiting from a growing online ad market and sharper research focus, increased its profit by 26 percent and revenue by 37 percent in the third quarter.

A darkening economic outlook -- particularly in Europe, had stoked worries about advertising growth. But Google's revenue and paid-clicks performance boded well for the fourth quarter, analysts said.

"These guys continue to show that they are not immune to the market but that they are going to perform better than traditional players," said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter.

Robust demand from advertisers in emerging markets, such as in Asia, as well as strength in its mobile and display advertising businesses, juiced Google's financial results during the third quarter, he said.

"They are beginning to see some softness in Western Europe but it's being more than made up for by the broader distribution of their products in mobile and the fact that emerging markets are becoming more and more important," said Schachter.

Shares of Google rose to $594.01 in extended trade after closing 1.91 percent higher on Nasdaq. The stock is off nearly 8 percent from its 52-week high of $642.96 on concerns about the growing regulatory scrutiny facing the company as well as fears that spending would spiral out of control as Google steps up competition with Apple Inc and Facebook.

"The real interesting thing here is the expenses that weren't as high as the Street was anticipating. R&D was less than we were expecting," said UBS analyst Brian Pitz. "This is the fourth quarter in a row the company has accelerated their revenue on top line."

Chief Executive Larry Page, who assumed the top job in April, told analysts on a conference call that he was whittling down Google's sprawling portfolio of projects and diverting resources to businesses with higher potential returns.

"We have to make tough decisions about what to focus on, or we end up doing things that don't have the impact that we strive for," Page said. "Since we last spoke we've begun the process of shutting over 20 different products.

The company is plowing money into its fast-growing mobile business which competes with iPhone-maker Apple. Google's Android mobile software, already the world's most-used smartphone platform, is gaining momentum. It powers 190 million devices, up from 135 million in mid-July.

GOING MOBILE - IN A BIG WAY?

Page said the revenue run rate for Google's mobile business is more than $2.5 billion, a significant leap from $1 billion just a year ago.

In August, Google announced plans to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion. The deal, which Google expects to close this year or early 2012, will give it one of the wireless industry's largest patent libraries, as well as hardware manufacturing operations that will allow Google to develop its own line of smartphones.

But analysts and investors worry that Google is entering a low-margin business in which it has no experience. A move to build its own phones could also jeopardize support for Google's free Android mobile software from other phone manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp.

Google executives on Thursday's conference call did not address plans for Motorola, which Google has said it plans to run as a separate business. But Page took a jab at Microsoft Corp for waging a legal battle against companies that sell Android devices.

"They continue resorting to legal measures to hassle their own customers," Page said, referring to recent licensing deals between Microsoft and companies such as Samsung, HTC and Acer, many of which are also Microsoft customers.

"We see Android going gangbusters and we don't see anything that's going to stop that," he added.

Google said its net income in the three months ended September 30 grew to $2.73 billion from $2.17 billion in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Google said it earned $9.72 per share in the third quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were expecting adjusted EPS of $8.74.

"A lot of people were expecting spending to be out of control, but they had good control," said Herman Leung, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group.

Google's recently launched social networking service, Google+, is also on investor radars. Its effort to challenge Facebook's dominance in the red-hot social networking market got off to a fast start in June, collecting 10 million users in the first two weeks.

On Thursday, it said it had signed up more than 40 million users for its recently launched Google+ social network. Page also said that more than 3.4 billion photos have been uploaded to Google+ by users of the service.

Its third-quarter net revenue, which excludes fees that the company shares with partner websites, increased 37 percent year-on-year to $7.51 billion. Analysts were looking for $7.22 billion in net revenue.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and Edwin Chan; Editing by Richard Chang)

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Job gains ease recession fears but still weak (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employers hired more workers than expected in September and job gains for the prior two months were revised higher, easing recession fears.

But the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.1 percent for a third straight month, keeping pressure on President Barack Obama and the U.S. Federal Reserve to do more to spur the recovery.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 103,000 in September, the Labor Department said on Friday, but that included the return of 45,000 striking communications workers. Excluding those workers, employment increased by a meager 58,000.

"It underscores the belief that the economy has skirted a recession, but that's not to say it's out of the danger zone because there are significant risks out there," said Millan Mulraine, senior macro strategist at TD Securities in New York.

Job growth is still falling short of the pace needed to pull down unemployment, though the report had a firmer tenor than economists had expected. Hourly earnings rebounded, the length of the average work week rose, and revisions showed 99,000 more jobs were added in July and August than initially reported.

The unemployment rate also managed to hold steady despite a surge of new workers into the labor force.

U.S. stocks snapped a three-day rally as a downgrade of Spain and Italy's credit ratings overshadowed the jobs report. Treasury debt prices fell for a fourth straight day, while the dollar rose marginally against a basket of currencies.

Economists had expected payrolls to increase 60,000 last month, with the jobless rate steady at 9.1 percent. Employment growth has decelerated sharply from the first quarter of the year, when payroll growth averaged more than 165,000 a month.

The weak labor market poses a critical challenge for Obama, who faces a tough battle to win reelection in November 2012.

Obama has proposed a package of measures to spur jobs growth, but the plan has run into stiff opposition from Republicans, raising the prospect Washington will be unable to take decisive action.

"It's anemic growth at best, and you don't see anything from this administration that's going to turn it around," Rick Santorum, a former senator and a former Republican presidential hopeful, said on CNBC.

White House officials conceded the jobs growth was not good enough.

"I would not say that we are satisfied in the slightest," National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling told Reuters Insider. "There still is a risk that this economy could stall out or even have a double-dip recession."

The U.S. economy needs to grow by at least a 2.5 percent annual rate, with payrolls expanding by around 125,000 positions a month, just to keep the jobless rate from rising.

RECESSION WATCH

Health care, construction, retail, and professional and business services all contributed to the rise in payrolls, while manufacturing was a drag for a second straight month.

The closely watched report was the latest sign to suggest the world's largest economy was likely to skirt a recession despite weakness over the summer, although prospects for the nation's 14 million unemployed remained grim.

Private employment increased 137,000 last month, an acceleration from August's mere 42,000. But government payrolls fell 34,000 as employment at the local government level fell 35,000 and the Postal Service shed 5,000 positions.

The drop in local government payrolls included a loss of 24,400 education jobs.

Recent reports on manufacturing, business spending and auto sales suggest the economy fared better in the third quarter after growing at an anemic 1.3 percent annual pace in the April-June period, although job growth did not pick up.

Analysts warn that the economy is still not out of the woods, with Europe's debt crisis posing a threat that could derail the U.S. recovery. Industrial output in Germany -- Europe's biggest economy -- fell in August.

PUSHING ON A STRING

The Federal Reserve last month announced new steps to breathe life into the recovery by pushing long-term borrowing costs lower, but economists do not expect the effort to bear much fruit at a time many Americans are unable to access credit.

U.S. consumer credit fell by the most in nearly 1-1/2 years in August, the Fed said in a separate report, confirming the retrenchment by households whose confidence was damaged by a wrenching political fight over the U.S. deficit and steep stock price drops.

Uncertainty over the economic outlook has made businesses reluctant to hire aggressively.

"One of the main problems in the economy is the lack of confidence in economic policies here and in Europe," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University in the Channel Islands. "Most of the cards have been dealt and the politicians have been squabbling among themselves."

While the jobless rate held steady last month, other measures of unemployment grew darker.

The average duration of unemployment hit a record high of 40.5 weeks. and almost 45 percent of the 14 million jobless Americans had been out of work for six months or more, up from 42.9 percent in August.

In addition, a broader measure of unemployment that includes people who want to work but have given up looking for jobs and those working only part time for economic reasons rose to 16.5 percent from 16.2 percent.

But there were also some bright spots.

Hourly earnings rose 4 cents after falling in August; the length of the work week rose to 34.3 hours from 34.2 hours; and job gains were widespread.

Health care and social services payrolls increased by 40,800 jobs, construction added 26,000 workers -- possibly due to rebuilding after Hurricane Irene -- and temporary employment rose 19,400. Temporary hiring is sometimes seen as a harbinger of permanent hiring.

But manufacturing, which has been the pillar of the economy, shed 13,000 jobs, the second straight monthly decline.

(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Leslie Adler)

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