CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) said its third-quarter net profit attributable to the company fell to $809 million from $1.02 billion from the year-ago period. In other earnings news, Aetna (NYSE:AET) said its third-quarter net income rose 53% to $497.6 million from the year-earlier period. –MarketWatch
Republican gains in Congress mean U.S. companies from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) to Wellpoint Inc. may be able to weaken or block what they consider President Barack Obama’s anti-business policies on health care, the environment, taxes and financial reform. Republicans will use their perch as the new majority in the House of Representatives to try to eliminate funding for parts of Obama’s health care bill opposed by business as well as curb regulations and government spending, Jay Timmons, senior vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a Washington-based lobbying group, said in an interview before the election. -Bloomberg
AOL (NYSE:AOL) profit grew in the third quarter thanks to gains on investments it sold during the quarter, but revenue declined sharply as online ad sales fell and its and its dial-up Internet access business continued to falter. The troubled Internet company has struggled since before its split from Time Warner Inc. late last year. Led by CEO Tim Armstrong, a former Google executive, it is trying to revitalize itself to rely on online advertising as subscribers steadily abandon the Internet access business that made it famous in the 1990s. AOL said Wednesday its net income rose to $171.6 million, or $1.60 per share, in the July-September quarter, up from $74 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.But much of the growth was from cost cuts and gains from the company’s sale of its investments in the travel website Kayak and the instant messaging business ICQ. –Daily Finance
Private businesses hired new workers in October at a faster pace than expected and September payrolls looked a bit better, according to data released Wednesday. Private-sector jobs in the U.S. rose by 43,000 last month, according to a national employment report published by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. Economists had expected ADP to report a job gain of 22,000 in October. –The Wall Street Journal
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