Earnings Beat Expectations and Geithner Cleans Out His Office: Morning Buzzers

The markets are comfortably in green territory on Friday morning. After-hours earnings on Thursday were overall healthy, but most importantly didn’t come with a crash like Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL), which dragged on the markets yesterday.

At 10:25 a.m.: DJIA: +0.30%, S&P: +0.37%, NASDAQ: +0.58%.

Here’s what’s buzzing this morning:

Proctor & Gamble (NYSE:PG) enjoyed a boost from its second-quarter earnings report. Shares climbed over 3.5 percent after P&G reported core EPS growth of 12 percent to $1.22, and increased its forecast for top- and bottom-line growth for fiscal 2013. EPS guidance is now in a range between $3.97 and $4.07.

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) climbed 4 percent after reporting record first-quarter revenue and profit after the bell on Thursday. Net revenues increased 11 percent to $3.8 billion, while EPS increased 14 percent to $0.57 on the back of a 16.6 percent operating margin.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was up about 1 percent after its second-quarter earnings release. Revenue growth of 3 percent to $21 billion was weighed against earnings contraction of 3 percent to $0.76 per share, moving the stock price nowhere, fast. CEO Steve Ballmer indicated that while Windows 8 might not be rolling out quickly, it’s at least rolling out.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) climbed over 4 percent after beating expectations with it fourth-quarter earnings report. Income from continuing operations fell $0.63 per share, two cents below the quarter last year. Total revenue for the period ticked up to $7.3 billion.