Market Woes Might Continue Into January

The profit warnings are piling up at a record pace on Wall Street, and while the main culprits have names like IBM and Intel, an unusual number of anguished cries are coming from the non-technology likes of Ford, Coca-Cola and FedEx.

Barely a day has gone by in recent weeks without an onslaught of earnings announcements from U.S. companies hurt by the economic slowdown in the final months of 2000.

The flow of discouraging confessions may slow between Christmas and New Year’s. But analysts caution that the distress calls may resume, or even accelerate, as companies tally their final results for the quarter.

“Don’t read too much into it if it slows down [this week],” said Chuck Hill, director of research at First Call/Thomson Financial, a research firm that tracks profit forecasts by companies and Wall Street analysts.

Last year, he said, more than 40% of the warnings about weak fourth-quarter results came after Dec. 31.

In all, First Call had recorded more than 430 downward revisions to fourth-quarter forecasts through Thursday, nearly twice as many as this time last year.

Obviously, the barrage of bad news has dealt a sharp blow to what little remained of investor confidence in what already was shaping up as a sobering year in the stock market. The response has been a selling frenzy that could send Wall Street to its worst year since the early 1970s.

Meanwhile, despite the weakening technology outlook, some analysts are more alarmed by the trouble signs showing up in just about every other industry.