Snap-on warns for 3Q, 2004
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Vehicle tool maker sees profit below forecasts amid high steel prices, soft demand in Europe. NEW YORK  - Snap-on Inc., which makes vehicle-repair tools, said Tuesday its third-quarter and full-year
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Business & money: Â·  Warning that oil could hit $95 a barrel by end of year Â·  UK inflation outlook may force sixth bank rate rise
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J Sainsbury, the deeply troubled supermarket group, yesterday gave its third profits warning since March, and some analysts fear that a fourth could arrive as early as next Tuesday.
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A pair of Forrester Research analysts gave CIOs a passel of advice Thursday on how to deal with the possibility of a U.S. economic recession.&quot;We are not predicting a recession, but we think its important for CIOs to be proactive, to get their businesses ready in case there is a recession,&quot; said analyst Andrew Bartels, who conducted the teleconference with colleague Alex Cullen.Their recommendations boiled down to a number of main themes: The right ways to cut costs, to work closely with CFOs, and to plan not only for the lean times but for the good ones that inevitably follow.&quot;Get close to your CFO. You want to be arm in arm with that CFO,&quot; Bartels stressed.Forrester said there is a 55 percent probability the economy will remain essentially stabilized, due to factors including U.S. exports boosted by a weak dollar. The firm projects a 35 percent chance the country will enter a shallow recession, and a 10 percent chance it will fall into a deep one.The analysts said to watch for two key warning signs: Gas prices rising above $4 a gallon and two or more consecutive months of non-farm payroll employment.If they haven&#39;t already, CIOs should prepare now by reviewing their portfolios and identify which projects could be postponed, cut, or cancelled, he said.&quot;If you&#39;re running things well, adapting to recession is easier,&quot; Cullen noted.The tradeoffs vary depending on the type of cut, he said. For example, delaying hardware purchases could result in increased service outages.CIOs could also try other tactics, such as renegotiating vendor pacts or enacting hiring freezes, according to Forrester. Such measures could antagonize business partners and overburden staff, they said.But those types of risks are mild in comparison to that posed by cutting certain types of &quot;low-hanging fruit,&quot; such as time and support for research and development.&quot;These things look like they don&#39;t have immediate payback, so the question is &#39;Why are we doing them when times are tight?&#39;&quot; Cullen said.Likewise, it would be foolish to pull money and resources away from architectural strategy, he argued: &quot;You&#39;re going to be impeding your ability to take a long-term view of IT investments. When the tap opens up again people are going to be creating silos ... and you&#39;re going to spend your time unwinding these things.&quot;&quot;The worst thing you can do as a CIO is get so focused on cuts that when you come out of a recession, your department can&#39;t take the business where it wants to be,&quot; Bartels added.Outsourcing IT may also look like an appealing option, but the analysts issued a stern warning against it as a quick fix.Large-scale outsourcing deals take a long time to close, for one thing, Cullen argued: &quot;This is not near-term savings. This is not 2008 savings.&quot; But outsourcing of a particular IT function could make sense, he said.The hot trend of the past couple of years -- SaaS (software as a service) -- is not necessarily a fitting remedy during a recession, the analysts argued. While SaaS vendors relentlessly tout the cost savings their offerings can provide, it would cost a lot more to rip and replace legacy assets with SaaS products, the analysts said. However, they added, SaaS might offer lower upfront costs for a new technology.
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3Com Corp. on Friday warned investors that it will not meet expected revenues and gross margins that it had predicted in June during its fourth fiscal earnings report.
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Business & money: Â· Credit crunch creates Â£210bn backlog of buyouts Â· US sub-prime crisis claims more jobs and firms
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com [04-11-2004]. Electronic Data Systems has postponed the release of its third quarter 2004 earnings for the second time, as it continues to negotiate with its auditor KPMG over the value
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WPP, the world&#39;s second largest advertising company, warned of an uncertain 2005 yesterday as it disclosed that its third-quarter revenues were better than analysts had expected.
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Real estate consultancy Colliers International have published their Warsaw industrial market 2004 third quarter update last month.
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Inserts new paragraph 3 to show 3-cent charge for purposes of comparison with Reuters Estimates
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The 10-year US Treasury note may fall for the third day on expectations government reports on durable goods orders and consumer spending this week will show the economy is expanding.
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A global oversupply of large-sized liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is forecast to peak in the third quarter of this year, but it will balance out by the fourth quarter, a US-based research firm said on Friday.
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com September 12, 2004, 9:00 PM PT. With the economy slowly turning up, upgrading hardware has been on businesses radar in the past 12 months as their number two priority.
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Tool maker Snap-on Inc. on Tuesday  lowered its full-year earnings outlook for the second time in  less than two months due to high steel prices and weak business  in Europe, and its shares fell more than 12 percent.
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The old adage &quot;three steps and a stumble&quot; still has fans on Wall Street, but some analysts think it&#39;s ready for the glue factory.
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Texas Instruments Inc., the world's largest maker of chips used in cellular phones, expects third-quarter earnings to come in on the higher end of a range it had previously forecast.
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U.S. stock futures rose on Wednesday on optimism the government will raise its estimate of third-quarter economic growth, a move that would suggest stronger momentum for corporate profits.