Waning fervour for its Teenie Beanie Babies toy promotion in the US and stay-at-home soccer fans in Europe were among the reasons cited by McDonald's Corp yesterday for the modest increases in its second-quarter sales and profits.

McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, said its net income in the quarter rose 2 per cent to $525.9 million.

"We're somewhat disappointed with those results and the primary reason that they are soft is really because of the US and Europe and promotional comparisons against last year," said Mr Michael Conley, McDonald's chief financial officer.

"Those two segments for the world amount to over 80 per cent of operating income, so they have a big impact."

The results matched Wall Street's revised expectations. Analysts on average had expected the burger giant to report a profit of 39 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial, which tracks earnings data.

Many analysts lowered their estimates after McDonald's reported negative same-store sales in May and also cautioned a weak euro would hit results.