The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

4. Red Ink Blot

The future is looking inky at Lexmark (LXK Quote).

The Lexington, Ky., printer company stumbled into another earnings debacle Monday. Lexmark issued weak profit guidance for the second and third quarters, pointing to a price war in the market for inkjet printers and cartridges. Shares fell 6% in heavy trading.

Disappointing investors is nothing new at Lexmark, which is struggling under pressure from from printer giant Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote) and resurgent Kodak (EK Quote).

Lexmark has tried to grow its way out of this fix, but success has been fleeting. Back in the fall of 2006, for instance, Lexmark warned that fourth-quarter numbers would fall short of Wall Street's expectations.

"We have more work ahead," CEO Paul Curlander said Oct. 24, "but we continue to invest in the brand, market and product initiatives that support our long-term growth strategy."

Curlander sounded the same theme this past spring, when Lexmark cut profit targets again.

"Given the strength of our product line, we are now increasing our investment in demand generation in all customer segments," he said in a statement April 24. "While these investments negatively impact results in the current quarter, we believe we will see the benefit from these investments in the future."

Curlander may still believe that, though it's impossible to know for sure. With its stock having lost a third of its value this year, Lexmark has wisely turned down the spin. Curlander isn't quoted in Monday's press release.

Maybe the board finally realized his comments aren't fit to print.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 85. For now, at least, buyout rumors about the company seem to have faded.