NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Nasdaq traders jammed the signals of a major communications circuit-maker Friday after the company said it would take an $8 million charge to stop production of several direct broadcast television products.
Shares of Anadigics (ANAD), a Warren, New Jersey supplier of circuits for cellular phone, television and fiber-optic systems, lost nearly a third of their value, sliding 3-5/16 to 7-7/8. Anadigics said net sales in the third quarter will likely be $1 million less than the $22.7 million reported in its previous quarter.
Anadigic's losses were mirrored on the Nasdaq by those of Recovery Engineering (REIN), a drinking water systems firm whose stock was tainted in investors' eyes by a negative earnings projection.
Recovery's shares fell 3-7/16 to 8-5/8 - a 28.50 percent drop - after the company warned revenues for the third quarter would be 15 to 20 percent below consensus estimates of $22 million.
Elsewhere, as a certain hedge-fund hex continued to work its black magic on the financial sector Friday, the two leading decliners on the Nasdaq had only their own high-tech snags to blame for a steep slide.
NICE Systems Inc., a developer of digital recording and quality measurement systems, extended its morning slide Friday afternoon, spiraling down more than 43 percent on a weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings warning.
Shares of Nice (NICEY) nose-dived 12-15/16 to 16-7/8 after the New York-based company cited a sales shortfall and a slowdown in orders for an expected 10 to 15 percent drop in revenue from the second quarter. At one point earlier in the session, Nice stock had been off more than 53 percent.
Elsewhere on the Nasdaq, another bleak earnings outlook sent investors tearing into upholstery-fabric maker Quaker Fabric Corp.
By around 1:30 p.m., Quaker Fabric (QFAB) stock had shed nearly 45 percent of its value after the company announced its earnings for the second half were likely to fall significantly below analysts' estimates due to problems related to Year-2000 compliance.
Quaker shares lost 4 points to trade at $5 after the company forecast third- and fourth-quarter revenue would be a respective 15 and 10 percent below Wall Street estimates.
Over on the New York Stock Exchange, a major pharmaceutical stock could have used an elixir of its own Friday. A credit downgrade by Goldman Sachs pummeled British drug group Glaxo Wellcome Plc, whose shares skidded up to eight points in London trade.
Glaxo's American depositary receipts (GLX) were off 2-11/16 at 58, a 4.43 percent retreat, after Goldman lowered Glaxo from "recommended" to "neutral" amid expectations for lower sales of a cluster of forthcoming drugs used to treat AIDS, migraines and hepatitis.
The Goldman downgrade soured sentiment for another big drug issue, Merck, whose shares had eased 2-11/16 to 134-7/16, a 1.96 percent decline.
But the locus of the Big Board's troubles Friday was in the financial sector, which bore the brunt of the continuing fallout from Wednesday's $3.5 billion bailout of foundering hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management.
Shares of J.P. Morgan (JPM) were off 2-3/16 at 89-3/16, while Citicorp (CCI) gave up 1/8 to 100.
Direct marketing firm Fingerhut Cos. (FHT) saw its shares fall nearly 14 percent after announcing it would spin off its 83 percent stake of financial services company Metris Cos. and take a $31 million non-recurring, after-tax restructuring charge.
Fingerhut, which also said it would eliminate its 4 cent dividend and use the funds to repirchse stock, saw its shares slide 2-15/16 to 24-13/16.
Computer-chip maker Cirrus Logic (CRUS) picked up a virus on its way to the market Friday, after saying it will cut its manufacturing capacity and slash as many as 500 jobs in an effort to trim costs.
Cirrus also announced that it was in talks with IBM or Lucent on a possible restructuring of its stake in separate joint ventures with both companies. Cirrus shares were off 25/32 at 6-1/2 in early afternoon, having rebounded modestly from a nearly 15 percent morning-session skid.
Also on the high-tech front, Computer Sciences (CSC) was down 8-3/8 at 60-5/8 after Morgan Stanley said Friday it had lowered its rating on the company to 'neutral' from 'outperform'.
Shares of chemical maker Olin Corp. (OLN) fell 4-9/16 to 24-5/16 on a weak earnings expectation. Olin said it expected third-quarter charges to be in the 40-cent-per-share range, excluding charges, as compared with the 60 cents previously projected.
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