KPMG "It is clearly good news that government borrowing is lower than forecast in the pre-budget report: £167bn this year rather than £178bn as previously forecast.
The Japanese electronics company, Hitachi, said it expected to lose 480 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, more than twice as much as previously forecast.
Stung by falling demand for its products, the electronics maker NEC said it now expected to lose a record 300 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, twice as much as previously forecast.
Japan Telecom Holdings, which is two-thirds owned by the Vodafone Group, said that it would lose 104 billion yen ($955 million) in the year to March 2004, rather than earn 62 billion yen ($569 million) as previously forecast.
The company, which sells satellites and satellite communications services, said it would not be able to achieve profitability in late 2003 as previously forecast, but dismissed analyst concerns it was headed for bankruptcy or delisting.
Gross margins for the first half will be around 0.2% lower than in the same period last year and will be unchanged over the full year, rather than rising by 0.1% as previously forecast.
The Lloyds Banking Group said on Friday that it expected to report a profit this year as trading had so far been strong and provisions for bad assets were not as large as previously forecast.
One reason (as reported earlier today) is that the Greek economy will probably shrink by 7% this year, not 5% as previously forecast.... "Nothing has been done in Greece for the past three or four months," said the official, referring to the delays caused by the two elections held since May.
At the time, most Fed officials still expected the central bank to start dialing back its $85-billion-a-month 85-billion-a-month 85-billion-a-monthe program shutting down in mid-2014 as previously forecast.
Yesterday, as part of its third quarter earnings news, Netflix (NASDAQ NFLX) reported lower new subscriber numbers than previously forecasted.
Abengoa also told the market on Friday last week that its free cash-flow for the year would be as much as €800m lower than previously forecast.
