It may be a coincidence but most of the earnings reports for the third quarter were filed during the week of Halloween. The results have been downright scary.

Bank of Hawaii Corp. kicked off the week by reporting a 23 percent earnings decline for the recently completed quarter, followed by First Hawaiian Bank which posted a 2.3 percent slide the next day.

It got more frightening as the week went on.

Yesterday, Alexander & Baldwin Inc. announced that earnings were off 77 percent from the year-earlier mark while Central Pacific Financial Corp. reported a record $183 million net loss for the three months ending Sept. 30, 2009.

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. today reported a $25.5 million loss.

The exception: Hawaiian Airlines. Last week, the parent of the state's largest carrier largest carrier reported a five-fold increase in its third quarter net income.

Many of Hawaii's publicly traded companies are cyclical stocks, meaning that they reflect what is (or in this case, what isn't) going on in the local economy.

That the companies are still struggling indicates that an economic recovery is still far off.

Tags: Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Central Pacific Financial Corp., earnings, First Hawaiian Bank, Hawaiian Airlines, Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Biz Bites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.