MarketWatch: Profit woes piledrive futures

[marmar]

Apple, AmEx worries knock U.S. stock futures
Wachovia slashes dividend; DuPont ups bottom end of earnings goal
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch


LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Weak outlooks from a raft of companies, including Apple Inc., American Express, Texas Instruments and Vodafone Group, sent stock futures lower Tuesday morning, with tech stocks in particular seen getting battered.

S&P 500 futures dropped 11 points to 1,250.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 33.75 points to 1,793.75. Dow industrial futures fell 106 points.

U.S. stocks ended an uneventful Monday with minor losses, as better-than-expected Bank of America earnings were offset by losses from technology, pharmaceutical and consumer discretionary plays. The Dow industrials fell 28 points, the Nasdaq Composite lost 3 points and the S&P 500 ended slightly lower.

Apple dropped 10% in pre-open trade after reporting a softer-than-forecast fiscal fourth-quarter earnings outlook. Apple's third-quarter earnings climbed 31% on growing sales of Macintosh computers and iPod music players.

Deutsche Bank analysts said concerns over CEO Steve Jobs' health is playing as much a role in investor concerns as the group's earnings view. Apple said Jobs has no plans to leave the company and that his health is a private matter.

"While the topic is delicate, we believe the absence of a straightforward denial of health issues will increase speculation of a worst-case scenario," they said.

American Express fell 12% as the credit-card firm's second-quarter earnings dropped 38% and that company said it won't meet earnings targets until the economy improves. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/apple-amex-worries-knock-us/story.aspx?guid=%7B1BA6AB44%2D6183%2D4DDC%2D96EE%2D6E0F91E5D61B%7D

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. What is wrong...

With Jobs health, supposedly?

[marmar]

2. I don't know....That's the first I'd heard of his health problems....

n/t

[Gman]

3. Here's something from a month or so ago

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/06/11/apple-reponds-to-concerns-over-health-of-steve-jobs

Google results say pretty much the same thing, just speculation.