Exxon made nearly $1,500 a second last quarter, a new record

First, let's get the hard data out of the way: Exxon's $11.68 billion of profit last quarter was the highest ever recorded by any company, topping it's own previous record from the last quarter of '07. For those who like to keep track of such things, that is nearly $90,000 a minute; $1,500 every second. That's a lot of dough, for sure, but it is actually not as high as some investors were expecting, causing a bit of a sell-off this morning following the earnings announcement. It seems that some are worried that it is costing the oil giant too much money to find new reserves, though Exxon has been fighting that problem by asking Congress for subsidies to help.

In related news, pretty much all other oil companies also posted record numbers, including Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum. Expect all of these companies to continue spending more to find additional oil reserves in a bid to maintain this profit growth for as long as possible.

[Source: The New York Times]