Important news can't happen every day, and sometimes, that means that investors have to wait and see what the future will bring. Today, investors digested the implications of the Federal Reserve's somewhat dour pronouncement yesterday on the prospects for the U.S. economy, and they'll definitely want to see what tomorrow's jobs report says about future growth potential. In the meantime, though, the stock market went about its business today, and the Dow Jones Industrials (^DJI -0.98%) closed down about 50 points.
Among stocks that closed lower, Intel (INTC 1.77%) dropped 1.5%, despite news that it has finally started to see launches of smartphones using its low-cost mobile chips. Phones using Intel's Lexington chips came out in Kenya and Thailand, showing the importance of having low-end products with inexpensive components in order to meet demand in less prosperous emerging markets. Clearly, Intel needs to get developed-market penetration in order to boost profits meaningfully, but the releases are still a good sign that the company is making progress.
Elsewhere, Liquidity Services (LQDT -0.52%) lost more than 22%, after revising its range for full-year fiscal 2013 earnings guidance downward by $0.15, to $0.21 per share. Although the auction-portal company beat estimates after excluding one-time items, the negative forward guidance is just the latest evidence that companies are uncertain about whether the economic recovery of the past several years can keep pace, let alone pick up steam.
Finally, Fusion-io (FIO.DL) plunged 13%, as the company gave current-quarter guidance that pointed to a roughly 40% shortfall in revenue, and an operating loss of $10 million to $15 million, in stark contrast to the considerable profit that analysts had expected the company to earn. With Apple and Facebook providing half of the company's business, reduced orders from both customers had a huge impact on Fusion-io, and that reveals the big weakness that the flash-memory storage specialist has in predicting and managing its finances.
