Big Tobacco making profits amid economic turmoil

While other companies have been struggling through the recession, the world's two largest Tobacco companies, Phillip Morris International and Reynolds American, did better than expectations in the second quarter of the year.

According to a bloomberg.com article Phillip Morris earned 83 cents per share, which was more than the average estimate of 77 cents. Reynolds exceed expectations by 13 cents per share, with a profit of $1.29.

Phillip Morris' shares have risen by 5.8 percent this year.

The Wall Street Journal also did a story about Tobacco's "resilience" amidst the global downturn.

Tobacco companies are certainly surviving the movement to go smoke-free, and developing new ways to hook kids with smokeless tobacco products... the topic of our next blog post