More profit warnings on deck
More profit warnings will greet investors Thursday morning, and trading could be light as people take off for the holiday-shortened week. The Dow was set to open slightly lower.
As the market reopens after a day-and-a-half-long rest for the Fourth of July holiday, the flood of profit warnings resumes. More than two dozen companies issued preannouncements before Tuesday's half-session, and two more technology companies already put out warnings Thursday.
Stocks to watch
• Compuware slipped its warning out just before the holiday Wednesday. The maker of software that manages and monitors large corporate computer systems said it expected revenue of $445 million, lower than First Call's estimate of $460 million.
Earnings, excluding acquisition costs, will be above estimates though, at around 11 cents to 12 cents in the first quarter. First Call was expecting 10 cents a share.
• Knight Trading Group made a preannouncement Thursday morning. The largest Nasdaq share dealer said its second-quarter earnings would be cut in half, blaming lower trading volumes. Earnings are predicted to be between 7 cents to 10 cents a share, well below the 15 cents to 20 cents a share it projected in April. First Call expected a profit of 10 cents a share for the quarter.
But the company's revenue outlook was unchanged--at between $150 million to $180 million.
• Apple Computer could get some attention after announcing it will stop producing the Power Mac G4 Cube. Sales of the sleek, smaller-sized device didn't live up to its expectations.
Apple said it had already halted production, though it could reintroduce an upgraded model later.
At the bell
The Dow Jones industrial average may open 13 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for July futures contracts was off 1.5 points to 1,244 at 7:25 a.m. EDT in 24-hour electronic trading.
Reuters contributed to this report.