Last Friday’s dismal nonfarm payroll post lifted concerns of systemic employment problems, and industrial bellwether FedEx’s (NYSE:FDX) lowered fiscal first quarter profit forecast demonstrated the increasing impact of global growth constraints on US firms. Indeed, this morning’s profit warning from luxury brand Burberry disclosed a broad slowdown in sales growth with foot traffic down in recent weeks and comparable sales numbers flat. At August’s end fellow luxury brand Hermes had upped its annual sales and profit targets, raising questions of recent consumer spending slowdown, especially from emerging markets. DJIA shares yesterday were weighed down by another drop in Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) share price, off 3.8% on top on Friday’s 3.6% tumble after the semiconductor firm cut fiscal third quarter guidance below consensus forecasts and the WSJ warned that demand from developing nations may be descending at faster rates that either the Street or the company may be anticipating. Indeed, it seems symbolic that Monday’s DJIA loss, which was increased by Intel’s warning of global growth worries, was ameliorated by a 0.8% gain in Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), the DJIA’s component leader, after the company updated its layoff plans to about 29K over the next two to three years, planning 2K more layoffs than previous. |