A Big Day for IT Updates

Tuesday was a big day for IT industry outlooks, with Cisco , HP and Texas Instruments among the tech companies updating analysts.

The biggest revelation of the day came from HP CEO Carly Fiorina, who said the company’s board of directors had considered splitting up the company, but unanimously rejected the idea each time it came up because of costs and legal and business concerns.

HP provided no new financial guidance during its analyst meeting. HPQ shares slipped 1% on the day.

Cisco CFO Dennis Powell said the company expects to meet analysts’ expectations for 13% growth this fiscal year, which ends next July, and he said he expects 12-15% annual revenue growth through fiscal 2008. “Our objective is to grow at the high end of that range,” he said.

Powell also said he expects gross margins to decline in coming years. Cisco shares also traded lower on the day.

After the close, Texas Instruments said it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 25-27 cents a share on revenues of $3.02-$3.14 billion. Analysts are looking for earnings of 26 cents on revenues of $3.1 billion. TI cited “a market environment characterized by ongoing inventory adjustments, especially in standard products sold through distribution channels.” TXN shares slipped 1% after hours.

Also after the close, Seagate raised guidance.

Stocks were battered during the day, as news of the slowest productivity growth in two years inspired profit-taking.

The Nasdaq tumbled 36 to 2114, the S&P 500 lost 13 to 1177, and the Dow fell 106 to 10,440. Volume rose to 1.53 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.72 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 25-7 on the NYSE, and 23-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 83% on the NYSE, and 66% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 147-37 on the NYSE, and 108-20 on the Nasdaq.

IBM lost 1.6% on plans to exit the PC business.

Apple , AMD and Overstock were hit by downgrades.

Comtech and CMGI jumped on their results.

Nvidia rose 5% on a deal with Sony .

Versant surged on a deal with PeopleSoft .