As if that were not enough, a shaky forecast for the retailer sector and a sharp cut to a chip-maker's guidance could push Wall Street below its October lows on Thursday.
"But if it's not a Godzilla, it's a pretty shaky forecasting tool.
Economic forecasts are shaky: 0.8 per cent global GDP growth this year and 1.6percentnextext, according to CEBR.
But six months on, their forecasts look shaky: Nationwide's June house price index showed that in the first half of the year the average price of a UK home rose by 4%, or more than £1,000 a month, from £162,262 at the end of December to £168,941 at the end of June.
Experts say the number of such companies has grown rapidly recently, and the society is worried their poor predictions could undermine already shaky public confidence in weather forecasts.
Weary investors lacked the gumption to fight off the bleak outlook for the U.S. economy on Wednesday, after two retailers were forced to rethink their forecasts due to shaky consumer spending and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson revealed that his department's program to buy up troubled assets will not, in fact, buy up troubled assets.
Some doubt remains about whether the windfall will appear as forecast, especially given the shaky state of the economy.
"That's good, but I think we have to be conservative that our long-term forecast is very, very shaky," he said.
Sales at Daimler, which warned last week that its 2013 profit forecast was beginning to look shaky, fell 1.2 percent, while its rival, BMW, posted a 4.7 percent drop in sales.
There is no complete database of five-year forecasts, but you can get a sense of how shaky all this is by looking at the odds against accuracy over shorter periods.
