Among a slew of new Q1 earnings reports after the bell today, we focus on a few of the biggest firms in their respective industries: Qualcomm (QCOM Quick QuoteQCOM - Free Report) , American Express (AXP Quick QuoteAXP - Free Report) and CSX Corp. (CSX Quick QuoteCSX - Free Report) are among those who've hit the tape this afternoon with new earnings, sales and details.

Qualcomm, which has endured a precipitous fall in share price since the beginning of the year, nevertheless posted positive surprises in both earnings and sales for Q1: earnings of per share (accounting for stock-based compensation and other BNRI) topped the $1.05 per share expected. Revenues of $5.99 billion in Q1 easily beat the Zacks consensus estimate of $5.88 billion. Guidance for Q2 was within the expected range on both the top and bottom.

AmEx, although seeing its second yearly drop in revenues, managed to top estimates on both the top and bottom lines. $1.34 per share beat the Zacks consensus by 6 cents, while revenues of $7.89 billion strongly bested the $7.72 billion expected. This earnings beat is now par for the course at AmEx lately: the average positive surprise over the past 4 quarters is 9.5%.

CSX Corp. put up a strong beat on both earnings and sales for the quarter. 51 cents per share was well past the 43 cents anticipated, and $2.87 billion in revenues well outpaced the $2.73 billion expected. The first earnings report under the tenure of new CEO Hunter Harrison has gone quite swimmingly, even though CSX has posted strong earnings beat over the past several quarters.