Stocks fall on bleak corporate forecasts

[villager]

Source: AP

Stocks fall on bleak corporate forecasts

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - The stock market fell sharply Tuesday as troubling outlooks for Citigroup Inc. and Intel Corp. underscored once again for investors that U.S. companies, led by the financial sector, are being pummeled by the weakening economy. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 150 points.

Merrill Lynch has reduced its full-year earnings prediction for Citigroup because it believes the bank could write down another $18 billion of debt tied to souring mortgages, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The stock, one of the 30 companies in the Dow, fell to new nine-year lows, and took other financial stocks down with it.

Intel, meanwhile, lowered its first-quarter earnings forecast, a move that heightened worries about the technology industry. Chipmakers are considered an early warning system for troubles throughout the sector.

Wall Street remained anxious amid a series of speeches from Federal Reserve officials. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned in a speech in Florida early Tuesday that more home foreclosures are coming, while Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said in prepared remarks to U.S. senators that banks likely face more asset write-downs but their cash levels are sound.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street

[truthisfreedom]

1. In other news, rethugs continue to lie, cheat, steal, and disrupt the US economy.

Hold back the edges of your skirts, ladies, we're about to enter hell.