At US Airways, profits rose to $48 million, which included a one-time gain of $73 million on a transaction with Delta related to takeoff and landing rights at LaGuardia and Reagan National. Stripping out the one-time items, US Airways posted an EPS loss of -$0.13, far better than the EPS loss of -$0.68 in the same period a year ago and nearly two times better than the consensus analyst estimate for an EPS loss of -$0.25. Revenue of $3.27 billion was also better than the consensus estimate of $3.24 billion.

The two airlines follow Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) and AMR Corp.’s (OTC: AAMRQ.PK) American Airlines, both of which reported earnings last week. Southwest also posted a profit on hedging gains, and American’s loss, stripping out one-time charges, was 40% smaller than it was in the same period a year ago.

United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow, as is JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU). The consensus estimates call for United to post an EPS loss of -$1.03 on $8.58 billion in revenue and for JetBlue to post EPS of $0.08 on revenue of $1.19 billion.

The good news for airlines is that traffic is up, ticket prices have been raised, and some capacity has been wrung out. The wild card, of course, is fuel costs. Data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicates jet fuel cost $3.245/gallon, down -2.4% from March, and down -1.9% from the same period last year. The IATA estimates the average cost for a barrel of jet fuel in 2012 will be $135, which will raise the industry’s total fuel bill by $41 billion over the year.

Delta’s shares are down about -0.3% in the early afternoon, at $10.45 in a 52-week range of $6.41-$11.60. US Airways’ shares are up 2.9% at $9.58, in a 52-week range of $3.96-$10.35.

The lightly traded Guggenheim Airline ETF (AMEX: FAA) is up 0.14% at $29.30 in a 52-week range of $23.82-$39.18.

Paul Ausick

Read America’s Nine Most Damaged Brands.

A brand derives its value from several factors. the most obvious being how much it can earn. This is not the least evident with Marlboro — the best-selling brand for its two owners, tobacco companies Philip Morris and Altria. The companies have fostered the cigarette brand through hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising and marketing support. The brand has evolved, adding other versions. Today there are also Marlboro Lights, Marlboro Reds, Marlboro 100s, and Marlboro Menthol. One version of the brand is not enough, in the wisdom of its owners. The evolution of the brand has kept its customer base over the years, and probably added to it.

The brands on this damaged brand list often rose based on lofty claims, and fell when those claims were not realized. The Chevy Volt was meticulously engineered by GM to be its flagship car of the future. Then it had engine fire problems. The Nokia Lumia 900 was built to compete with the Apple iPhone. Just as it was introduced in the U.S. market, it was discovered to have a software flaw that could prevent data downloads. The Airbus A380 “super jumbo” was made to be the most advanced passenger jet in the world, until its wings began to crack.

For our purposes, a brand doesn’t have to be a product or service. People can be brands. Famous sports figures count on their images for large endorsements. Tiger Woods proved how swiftly a sports brand can be destroyed. A country can be a brand. Street violence in Jamaica in 2010 triggered a warning about travel to the island from the U.S. State Department. All of these brands are among the most widely recognized and consumed brands by America.

These are America’s Nine Most Damaged Brands.

After the first half hour of trading this morning, AMR is down more than -30% at $0.36. Volume has reached about two-thirds of average daily shares traded.The airline stock has been delisted by the NYSE.

MoSys is up more than 47% at $4.38. Volume is already about 3x the daily average. The memory chip designer has sold a portfolio of patents to a subsidiary of Tessera Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: TSRA) for $35 million in cash.

Tegal is up more than 51% at $3.50. Volume is more than double the total daily average. The green energy product maker has sold patents valued at about $4 million.

Bioanalytical Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BASI) is down more than -10% at $1.21. Volume has already reached the daily average. The contract services and equipment supplier has extended the contract of its CFO until March 31, 2012, but it no further extensions are contemplated.

Paul Ausick

The list includes the following still-public stocks: Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALIM); AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR); American Apparel, Inc. (AMEX: APP); Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK); Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER); FriendFinder Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFN); Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ); Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (NASDAQ: PNCL); Reddy Ice Holdings, Inc. (RDDY); YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCWD). 

Almost all of these have either had a form of bankruptcy or reorganization, while others have been in the rumor mill for quite some time.  We included a write-up on each, and have even have gone as far as discussing some caveats which could help some of these stocks to survive. There is even a chance that a couple of these could end up being major turnaround stocks.

Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALIM) saw a share price implosion take place in November after the FDA all but rejected its eye drug.  We covered this one at BioHealthInvestor with a near 75% drop on the news after being public less than two years.  Shares fell to $1.96 with a $61 million market cap and shares are now at $1.30 with a $41 million market cap.  The good news is that it has no debt overhang and it may be able to scrap operating costs down to nothing.  Still, we cannot see how it can fund itself through another set of trials.  Mathematically it is more than financially challenged, even if the company manages to hang on as a NASDAQ listing.

AMR Corporation (NYSE: AMR) is effectively done already.  We had been expecting an NYSE delisting notice to come for a while, even though there was a time even in the last week of the year where shares gapped up big and traded as though there may be some intrinsic post-bankruptcy value left for common shareholders.  That would not be the normal post-bankruptcy value.  While anything is possible, this one will move to the pink sheets and will trade around with a 5-ticker symbol for a while.

American Apparel, Inc. (AMEX: APP) has so far managed to avoid being delisted and so far managed to avoid a bankruptcy through a shaky history.  Still, things have been sketchy here for so long that even a near-40% jump in shares from $0.57 to $0.75 since its early December business update showed improving store sales metrics.  This company has managed to survive on less than $10 million in cash but still has a net tangible value of $56 million despite a loss in 2010 of $86 million.  Here is the caveat” American Apparel has managed to exist in this diminished state for some time and its controversial CEO has managed to hang on.  Maybe the company can pull a rabbit out of a hat and turnaround.  American Apparel often notes “going concern” as a risk under its safe harbor statements in press releases.

Read Also: Analysts Top Biotech Stocks For 2012

Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) has done everything wrong and had everything go wrong that could go wrong.  Antonio Perez has been on our list of CEOs that need to be fired for years now and the company has stuck its head in the sand for far too long.  The bankruptcy rumors have swirled for long enough.  The real value left in the company is in the patents, but the company has not been able to make its patent machine turn into a survival machine.  The KKR board members have also resigned and that could be a sign that the private equity firm will try to force a move here so it can secure whatever value is left. At the end of September when we polled our readers, the poll response was that Kodak was more likely to go bankrupt than Greece.  Ouch.

Christmas for AMR

AMR (NYSE: AMR), the parent of American Airlines, has taken advantage of the peculiar advantages of Chapter 11. A judge approved its plans to buy 32 Boeing (NYSE: BA) jets between now and the end of the year. It also looks like the airline company will get to cancel some leases on older planes. American would have been unable to effect those cancellations under normal circumstances. Labor and airplane lease companies have a great deal to fear from the Chapter 11 process. The bankruptcy court could decide that union pacts hobble the airline too much to make it viable. A judge also could decide that American must close down a number of routes. The Boeing decision is an early sign that American will come out of Chapter 11 a much stronger firm.

New Kodak President

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) continues its efforts to find a way to prevent Chapter 11. The company promoted its general counsel to president. Laura Quatela has been instrumental in setting licenses for the firm’s intellectual property to Samsung and LG Electronics. But Kodak has failed to license any of its large digital portfolio, which means that Quatela’s success has been limited. Some observers of Kodak are shocked that CEO Antonio Perez has kept his job. There is the possibility that if Kodak does file for bankruptcy, Quatela would be the best steward of the company’s assets, so her move to the top job may not be far away.

Payroll Tax Cuts

Congress appears almost certain to pass legislation to extend jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts for another two months. House Republicans had resisted this, but pressure was brought to bear on their leadership by rank and file representatives who had heard complaints from voters about the difficult financial situation of many Americans. Of course, the short-lived nature of the program extensions means debate on them will begin again when Congress returns from the holidays. That fact is more important than the passage of the bill. The jobless and people who need the few dollars per month that payroll tax cuts give them may find themselves in worse conditions in March rather than now. That will keep many consumers conservative, at least until they know the fate of the two programs for the balance of the year.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The U.S. approves a Deutsche Boerse deal to merge with NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX). (Reuters)

The International Monetary Fund presses to sharply increase its size and give more rights to large developing nations like China. (Reuters)

AT&T (NYSE: T) gets regulatory approval to buy some spectrum from Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM). (Reuters)

A German court makes a preliminary ruling that Samsung’s tablet does not resemble the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad enough to block sales. (Reuters)

A bankruptcy judge says AMR’s (NYSE: AMR) American Air division may buy 32 Boeing (NYSE: BA) jets. (Reuters)

Philip Falcone rejects an SEC deal that would have banned him from the securities industry. (WSJ)

The Federal Reserve may plan to keep interest rates low into 2014. (WSJ)

The activity of German consumers picks up. (WSJ)

The head of AIG (NYSE: AIG) tells his board he would like to stay another year. (WSJ)

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) names its general counsel as president. (WSJ)

Mercedes and BMW battle to see which will be the leader in U.S. luxury car sales this year. (WSJ)

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) tells some customers it cannot fulfill back orders. (WSJ)

Online retailers do more to change their websites as e-commerce becomes more competitive. (WSJ)

Retailers sharply cut prices to clear inventory before the holiday weekend. (NYT)

The Italian Senate passes a new budget plan. (NYT)

Retail sales in the U.S. should rise 3.8% for the holidays as good weather helps keep shoppers in stores. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

With American Airlines on the sidelines, we’ve looked at the stocks of several other US carriers in a search for some hidden value: Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL), United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), US Airways Group Inc. (NYSE: LCC), JetBlue Airways Corp. (NYSE: LCC), Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK), Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: HA), and Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE).

Delta Air Lines has a median target price of $18.00 and is trading at $8.39 around noon today. The implied gain here is about 115%. Delta’s share price is about -1.5% lower than it was on October 21st, so the implied gain is growing because the share price is falling. The target price is unchanged since October.

US Airways has a median target price of $10.00 and is trading today at $5.36, about -7.6% lower than the share price in late October. The implied gain is about 86.6%, and the target price is unchanged since October.

United Airlines has a median target price of $32.50 and is trading today at $19.94, yielding a potential upside of nearly 63%. The stock’s target price rose by $0.50 in the past six weeks, but the share price has fallen by about -1.4% in the same period.

Every one of the nine stocks we looked at has an implied gain of greater than 20%, proving once again that numbers often don’t tell the whole story. The only stock with a chance of offering investors some value is Alaska Air. But the chance is a very slim one.

Alaska Air’s median target price was raised from $80.00 to $83.00, and the share price has increased by about 5% since late October. It’s the only one of these nine to perform that combined feat. The stock’s potential upside is 22% and its forward P/E is 7.39. The company does not pay a dividend.

Alaska has ordered 15 new 737s from Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2012. Thirteen of the new planes will be 737-900ERs, which carry a list price of $89.6 million each. That’s a total of about $1.2 billion, which is roughly equal to both the company’s long-term debt and to its available cash.

The company does not indicate how it will finance the purchase of these planes, but a recent report in the Financial Times indicates that European banks, the main lenders to global airlines, have cut back lending for commercial aircraft purchases. That means the airlines will have to issue debt or perhaps resort to leasing new planes.

The impact on aircraft makers like Boeing is likely to be greater than the impact on airlines, but what’s reasonably certain is that the cost of capital for aircraft is going to rise. For that reason, if for no other, investing in any airline stock now is a speculative play rather than a value play.

Paul Ausick

Of course, many big public corporations also did very poorly. Several nearly destroyed their business and dragged down shareholder value with it. 24/7 Wall St. combed through the S&P 500 to find the best and worst managed companies in America for 2011.

Read: The Best Run Companies In America
Read: The Worst Run Companies In America 

To make a list of semifinalists, 24/7 Wall St. considered stock price, changes in earnings per share, major shifts in market share and changes in management, among other data. Once the initial screen was complete, we reviewed product launch success, financial results, success of new management and the performance of each company within its industry. The editors then sifted through the finalist to identify those that rewarded both customers and shareholders and those that caused these two groups the most harm.

Neither the best-run companies list nor the worst-run companies list includes a large number of corporations from any single industry. This indicates our methodology identifies well- and worst-managed companies regardless of the industry. Based on our criteria, the management of Starbucks did as good a job as the management of Oracle — two of the best-run companies. Similarly, Eastman Kodak management did as poorly as the management of American Airline parent AMR — two of the worst-run companies.

This is 24/7 Wall St.’s Best and Worst Run Companies of 2011.

S&P’s threat of a downgrade of eurozone nations puts huge pressure on the region’s leaders. (Reuters)

An independent panel that reviewed the financial activity of Olympus suggests legal action be taken. (Reuters)

An MIT report says the U.S. power grid is vulnerable to cyber attacks. (Reuters)

BP (NYSE: BP) says high oil prices could hurt global growth. (Reuters)

Samsung announces a new flash memory chip operation in China to cost as much as $4 billion. (Reuters)

John Corzine ignored warnings about his firm’s risky trades, some of which were given to his board by management. (WSJ)

Merkel and Sarkozy will support changes in the euro area treaty that would hold nations more closely to their budgets. (WSJ)

Ford (NYSE: F) begins to search for a CEO as Alan Mulally plans to leave within two years. (WSJ)

AMR (NYSE: AMR) likely will make deep expense cuts so it can exit Chapter 11. (WSJ)

Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) announces who will manage the two divisions into which the company will be broken. (WSJ)

Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) will try to raise $300 million. (WSJ)

California Governor Jerry Brown will try to get a tax on high-income residents to cover the costs of education. (WSJ)

Alpha Natural Resources (NYSE: ANR) will pay fines to cover a mining disaster that happened before it owned the operator of the mine involved — Massey. (WSJ)

BP says Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) destroyed evidence about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. (WSJ)

A leading Greek politician says his country’s recession will last through 2013. (WSJ)

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) expects strong ad growth in the near term. (WSJ)

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) says that two agencies approved its drilling in the Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. (WSJ)

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) changes some of its advisers as it tries to avoid Chapter 11. (WSJ)

Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund pushes to replace board members at some U.S. firms it owns. (WSJ)

Debate over whether Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will hurt local merchants in India has caused deep rifts in a government that may let large retailers own stores in the country. (NYT)

An antitrust hearing will check issues with the Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) and Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS) merger. (NYT)

Edgar M. Bronfman Jr. departs as chairman of Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG). (NYT)

Dubai may refinance $10 billion in state debt. (FT)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Tom Glocer, the head of Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI), resigns and will be replaced by the COO. (Reuters)

The intellectual property battle between Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung continues in the California courts. (Reuters)

AMR (NYSE: AMR) workers will have to fight to maintain pensions. (Reuters)

The European Central Bank says it may take action on the EU crisis. (Reuters)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) may launch an online shopping business to compete with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). (WSJ)

The Senate blocks a bill to extent tax cuts into next year. (WSJ)

The ECB says it would increase its role in the debt crisis if nations in the region set and follow strict budgets. (WSJ)

Many credit rating agency employees have left their firms to work as analysts at banks — a sector they once rated. (WSJ)

Two Fed officials say they do not expect the central bank to launch a QE3 program. (WSJ)

Sales of SUVs rise sharply as gas prices drop. (WSJ)

Google’s Chrome becomes the second most used browser after Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer. (WSJ)

General Motors (NYSE: GM) says it will buy back Chevy Volts. (WSJ)

Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) will pay Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) as much as $1.6 billion over four years for access to the Clearwire network. (WSJ)

Purchasing managers indexes in most nations outside the U.S. declined last month. (WSJ)

Lorillard (NYSE: LO) will continue the cigarette business and not diversify into other forms of tobacco products. (WSJ)

Retailers that tend to offer discounts did well in November sales numbers. (WSJ)

Some AMR creditors will be forced to take big write-downs. (WSJ)

AT&T (NYSE: T) criticizes the FCC for comments about its plan to buy T-Mobile. (WSJ)

BMW and Toyota (NYSE: TM) will work on battery technology together. (WSJ)

Nissan hopes to become the number two Japanese car company in the U.S. (WSJ)

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) reports weak numbers as it battles in the e-commerce business. (WSJ)

Talbots (NYSE: TLB) loses money in the most recent quarter. (WSJ)

Massachusetts sues large banks, including Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), over mortgage fraud. (WSJ)

Credit insurance rates show the costs to insure Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) debt is higher than for EU-based banks. (WSJ)

Germans fear that some solutions to the sovereign debt crisis will cause inflation in the nation. (NYT)

The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers releases a study that shows only 7% of Americans who lost jobs in the credit crisis have come back into the labor force with comparable or better work. (NYT)

Ford (NYSE: F) tries to revive is flagging luxury Lincoln brand. (NYT)

Merkel says Germany wants new EU rules that will bind nations to honor budgets. (FT)

Banks find it increasingly difficult to make money. (FT)

Banks will compete with sovereigns for $2 trillion needed to refinance maturing debt next year. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre