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Everywhere there's a warning

By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator

Dallas, TX – In the past few days, a variety of warnings have been issued across the Metroplex - some corporate, one personal. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.

On Friday, Fort Worth-based Radio Shack announced its fourth quarter earnings will not meet earlier expectations. A year ago, it earned 67 cents a share for the quarter. Radio Shack hoped, at the very worse, to stay sideways. Its previous forecast was in the range of 63 to 68 cents. It's now predicting 58 to 60 cents a share. According to the Dallas Business Journal, Radio Shack blames below par "sales of Sprint PCS mobile phone service, toys and home entertainment accessories." Sounds like everything in the store. But looking into its crystal ball, the company sees a more profitable future. They're staying with their expectation of "13 to 15% growth in earnings every year from 2003 to 2005." Boy, I wish I were that confident about my future. Either way, Wall Street must have liked what they heard: Radio Shack's stock closed up on Friday in very large volume and is up again today.

This morning, Dallas-based Hotels.com also warned it would not meet expected revenues or earnings. Hotel bookings are down and expenses are up. Unfortunately, Wall Street and investors did not take this news quite as favorably. The pre-opening announcement that its projected revenue for the fourth quarter would be down between $12 to $19 million from earlier forecasts sent the stock plummeting. Surprisingly, even the market rallying today on the excitement of hearing the President's stimulus package tomorrow isn't helping this internet stock - yet.

And how's this for a personal warning? According to Men's Fitness magazine - Dallas is fat. It's the ninth fattest city in the country. Don't laugh, Fort Worth - you're the sixteenth. Good news - better than last year. Houston's the fattest and Honolulu's the fittest. But isn't it all in the eyes of the beholder? For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.

Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.