Dell Rains on Microsoft’s Parade

Dell overshadowed stellar results from Microsoft Friday with yet another profit warning.

The news, which hit about two hours before the market opened Friday morning, turned stock futures from green to red, sending the major indexes to another losing day and the Nasdaq to its lowest close in 14 months.

Dell shares hit their lowest levels since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when they briefly touched $16. Dell shares lost 10% on the day to close at $19.91. Dell’s stock has lost half its value in the last year, as it has been beset by one misstep after another, an unusual position for a company that was almost without peer for more than a decade.

Coming on the heels of disappointing earnings reports from Intel and AMD , the news overshadowed strong results from Microsoft and Google . Still, Microsoft shares gained more than 4% on the day, while Google finished 0.8% higher.

Dell cited aggressive pricing in a slowing commercial market for the results, which exacerbated fears of an economic slowdown. Dell said its earnings will come in about a dime under 32-cent analyst estimates, with sales of $14 billion missing forecasts by $230 million.

The warning also hit shares of HP , which has been stealing market share from Dell over the last year. HP will report its results next month, when Dell will report complete results.

The Nasdaq lost 19 to 2020, the S&P 500 fell 8 to 1240, and the Dow lost 60 to 10,868. Volume rose to 2.7 billion shares on the NYSE, and 2.4 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 21-11 on the NYSE, and 22-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 79% on the NYSE, and 73% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 43-167 on the NYSE, and 31-275 on the Nasdaq.

Broadcom , PMC-Sierra , Packeteer , Hutchinson , PDF , Spansion and VeriSign fell on their results.

Cerner , Compuware , Hyperion and Satyam rose on their earnings reports.

Tessera rose on a settlement with Micron .