PC Stocks Take It on the Chin in After-Hours Trading

Boding horribly for Monday's trading,

Compaq

(CPQ)

dropped to 26 in after-hours trading from a close of 30 15/16 following a nasty (and late!) first-quarter profit warning. The world's largest PC maker now expects earnings of 15 cents a share, less than half the 33-analyst

First Call

forecast for 31 cents. Compaq, which earned 1 cent in the year-ago period, blamed lower demand and increased competitive pricing.

The company

issued an unofficial preannouncement on Feb. 25, telling a handful of analysts visiting its Houston headquarters that its sales from the first six weeks of the quarter were light. (

TheStreet.com

carried

the news of Compaq's warning this afternoon in a

Tech Stock Update

, and columnist

James Cramer

weighed in on the bombshell earlier this evening.)

The news infected other PC stocks after hours like that belly-button scorpion-bug from

The Matrix

.

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

fell to 126 1/4 from a close of 130 13/16.

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

fell to 92 3/4 from 94 1/4.

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

fell to 40 1/8 from 43 9/16.

Gateway

(GTW)

fell to 72 1/2 from 74 11/16.

In other postclose news (earnings estimates from First Call; earnings reported on a diluted basis unless otherwise specified):

Earnings/revenue reports and previews

Western Digital

(WDC) - Get Report

said it plans to take a $20 million fourth-quarter charge and to cut 550 jobs as part of a consolidation of its media operations with

Komag

(KMAG)

.

Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures

France's highest court upheld the French government's decision to block

Coca-Cola's

(KO) - Get Report

$825 million proposal to acquire

Orangina

from

Pernod-Ricard

.

Offerings and stock actions

Williams Communications

, which owns a nationwide fiber optic network that provides voice, data, Internet and video services, filed with regulators for a $750 million IPO. It applied to be listed on the

New York Stock Exchange

under the symbol WCG.

Miscellany

Led by

Continental Airlines

(CAIB)

, major U.S. airlines said they raised domestic fares. Marking the third rate hike this year, the airlines lifted leisure fares by 3% and business fares by 1%.

American Bank Note Holographics

(ABH)

said its chairman and CEO, Morris Weissman, resigned. The security products marker faces several shareholder lawsuits after it said its net income for 1996 and 1997 were overstated by 10%.

A federal court awarded

Glendale Federal Bank

, a unit of

Golden State Bancorp

(GSB) - Get Report

, $909 million in damages against the government in the first of more than 100 cases linked to the savings and loan bailout of the late 1980s. The business will be compensated for losses incurred when Congress changed accounting laws in 1989.