Stocks to Watch Friday: Nortel, JDS Uniphase, Adobe, Oracle

By TSC Staff ,

Updated from 7:08 p.m. ET Thursday

Shelve your hopes for a quiet Friday.

Nortel Networks

(NT)

this morning projected a sharp second-quarter falloff amid softening demand in the telecommunication industry. The telecom equipment maker also said it was cutting 10,000 additional jobs beyond the 20,000 pink slips already being handed out.

In a press release

before the bell, the company, which is based in Brampton, Ontario, forecast a second-quarter loss of $19.2 billion after charges, on revenue of about $4.5 billion. Nortel also forecast a loss from operations of 48 cents a share and said it would record a $12.3 billion charge to write down intangible assets.

Nortel's warning led rival

Siemens AG

(SI) - Get Report

to respond, saying it was sticking to the medium-term margin forecast for the company's ICN telecom networks unit, according to

Reuters

.

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

General Semiconductor

(SEM) - Get Report

warned that second-quarter revenue would fall 15% to 17% from the previous quarter as a result of continued weak demand, and the company forecast earnings of 1 cent to 3 cents a share for the period.

The chipmaker earned 28 cents a share in the same period a year ago. Analysts, on average, expected second-quarter earnings of 13 cents a share.

Circuit City Stores

said sales for the first quarter declined 13% to $2.68 billion from $3.07 billion in the year-ago period. Earnings dropped to $17 million from $60.7 million in last year's first quarter. The company's earnings are allocated to

Circuit City Group

(CC) - Get Report

and

CarMax Group

(KMX) - Get Report

tracking stocks. The Circuit City Group earned 5 cents a share this year compared with 28 cents last year. CarMax earned 25 cents this year, up from 13 cents a year ago.

United Microelectronics

(UMC) - Get Report

said before the bell that it expects to post an operating loss and a 35% decline in revenue for the second quarter, citing weak market conditions, continued inventory adjustments and a slowing economy.

Analysts on average had expected the microchip maker to report second-quarter earnings of 2 cents a share, compared with 18 cents a share, for the same period last year.

After Thursday's Close

Adobe Systems

(ADBE) - Get Report

posted second-quarter earnings and sales that beat Wall Street's expectations. The San Jose, Calif., software company said its revised Acrobat program saw strong demand.

Net income dropped to $61.3 million from $65.8 million in the year-ago period, while revenue increased to $344.1 million from $300.1 million. Operating income was 34 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Analysts had expected earnings of 29 cents a share and revenue of $339.7 million.

JDS Uniphase

(JDSU)

reduced its financial targets for the fourth time this year and announced the writedown of equipment it can't sell or use.

The company

cut its fourth-quarter sales guidance to $600 million from $700 million, citing "continued weakness in telecommunications carrier spending and inventory reductions by the company's system provider customers."

JDS said it expected to be profitable for the fourth quarter, excluding inventory and acquisition charges, but the company offered no specific earnings target. The company will report a loss including the charges. Analysts expect JDS to earn 5 cents a share for the quarter.

Adding to the bad news, JDS projected first-quarter sales of $450 million, which is more than $200 million short of the analysts' consensus estimate and below the year-ago top line of $787 million.

IDT

(IDT) - Get Report

reported revenue of $335.7 million for the fiscal third quarter. That figure represents a 17% sequential increase and is 28% higher than the revenue recorded during the year-ago period.

The company posted a loss for the quarter of $48.3 million, or 73 cents a share. Excluding items, the company lost 28 cents a share. IDT lost $117.1 million, or $1.77 a share, in the latest second quarter. In the year-ago third quarter, IDT reported income of $126 million, or $1.66 a diluted share.

Rainbow Technologies

(RNBO)

said it expects to lose between 6 cents and 9 cents a share in the second quarter, instead of breaking even. The Irvine, Calif., Internet security provider was hurt by slowing business in the U.S. and Europe.

Revenue is expected to fall 5% from the year-ago period. Wall Street had been expecting the company to break even in the quarter.

Tribune

(TRB)

on Thursday cut its earnings projections for the second quarter. The publisher of newspapers such as the

Chicago Tribune

and

Los Angeles Times

and the owner of the

Chicago Cubs

baseball team said it expects to earn 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items and accounting charges.

The company said it was reducing its estimate because of a drop in advertising revenue. Analysts expected earnings of 28 cents a share. In April, Tribune forecast earnings of about 30 cents a share for the second quarter.

Tribune also announced a voluntary retirement program that it expects will cut its workforce by about 3%.

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Miscellany

360Networks

(TSIX)

said it will not a make a $10.9 million interest payment due on its senior notes.

The troubled telecom company, which faces mounting debt and little funding, said it was withholding the payment to "preserve cash as it reviews its options."

After Thursday's Close

Commerce One

(CMRC)

said Thursday that it named Dennis H. Jones, who joined the company as chief operating officer and vice chairman in April, to the position of president. He will officially start the new role on July 1.

Jones is succeeding Robert M. Kimmitt, who is leaving to join

AOL Time Warner

(AOL)

. Kimmitt will continue as a member of the Commerce One board of directors.

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

CEO Larry Ellison said the company is lowering its prices on its new 9i database software. The move was made in response to competitors' claims that their products are less expensive than Oracle's.

The company said it will set the pricing of its 9i product on the number of computer processors a user employs. Oracle is moving to the same measures its competitors use and is trying to "clean up some of the confusion in the marketplace," the company said.

Oracle's high-end database will sell for $40,000 per processor under the new pricing system, and the standard database will cost $15,000 per processor.

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