Yahoo!, Intel head week's list of warnings

NEW YORK: While Internet media company Yahoo! Inc. may take the prize as

earnings warning of the week, it was far from alone.

Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 maker of computer chips, took markets by

surprise when it warned late Thursday of disappointing revenues. It was Intel's

second warning in six weeks.

A total of 652 companies have made forecasts for the current quarter, and

more than two-thirds, or 440 of them, have lowered expectations, according to

research firm First Call/Thomson Financial.

The battered tech sector suffered the most. Out of the 135 tech companies

that have made forecasts, more than three-quarters, or 103 of them, have been

negative.

Weighed down by the warnings, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index was down 97.16

points, or 4.49 per cent, at 2,071.28 at midday on Friday. It has fallen 16.1

per cent this year.

The number of warnings this quarter is 54 per cent higher than three months

ago, when 285 companies had warned. And it is almost six times the number a year

ago, when the US economy was booming.

Part of the reason for the rocketing number of warnings this year is

Regulation FD, a new rule that requires companies to disseminate material

information about their business prospects widely.

Of the 151 S&P 500 companies that have issued forecasts, 109 of them have

been negative.

Profit or revenue warnings this week included the world's No. 1 supplier of

fiber-optic components JDS Uniphase Corp., communication chip companies Broadcom

Corp. and Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., diversified microchip maker National

Semiconductor Corp., systems integrator TIBCO Software Inc., communications

equipment maker Tellabs Inc., Internet provider InterNAP Network Services Corp.,

radio frequency products maker RF Micro Devices Inc., maker of light-emitting

diodes Cree Inc., maker of silicon timing devices for the communications

industry Integrated Circuit Systems Inc., No. 2 US dairy company Dean Foods Co.

and women's apparel retailer AnnTaylor Stores Corp.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.