ORANGE COUNTY EARNINGS

Newport Corp.: The Irvine manufacturer of components, instruments and integrated systems for the fiber optic communications, semiconductor equipment and other markets said net income for the first quarter totaled $914,000, or 10 cents a share, a drop of 54% from the $2 million, or 21 cents a share, recorded for the 1998 first quarter. Sales declined 13% to $29.4 million from $33.7 million.