General Dynamics Beat Earnings Expectations

General Dynamics reported a slight drop in 2nd-Q earnings but results surpassed Wall Street expectations & it said it saw signs of improvement in the market for its business jets. The Falls Church-based defense contractor said profit for the period ended July 5 fell 3.6%, to $618M from $641M in the 2nd-Q a year ago. Revenue for the 2nd-Q rose almost 11% to $8.1B. Analysts expected earnings of $1.57 a share on $8.13B revenue. On per-share basis, earnings were unchanged at $1.60 because of its effort to repurchase 10M shares. The results in 2nd-Q