Hewlett-Packard Warns, Sets Job Cuts

Hewlett-Packard (HWP Quote) expects to badly miss Wall Street's second-quarter consensus earnings forecast, citing the rapid slowdown in consumer information technology spending around the world.

The hardware company now expects to report a revenue decline between 2% and 4%, both sequentially and compared with the year-ago period, for the second fiscal quarter ending April 30.

Based on the slowdown in IT spending, H-P projected earnings of 13 cents to 17 cents a share for the quarter. The estimate includes about $150 million of inventory and capacity write-downs associated with some of the company's consumer products. According to Thomson Financial/First Call, analysts expect the company to earn 35 cents in the quarter. ...