There is a good chance that the markets may open lower today.  General Electric is reporting some pretty crappy numbers and an even more dour outlook. Keep in mind, GE has been on a jihad against producing consumer goods.  Most of it's income comes from essentially three sources, GE Capital, it' financial division; it's electric engine/turbine business; and medical equipment.  I'm probably forgetting one or more units within the conglomerate, but those are the biggies GE is a bellwether for both the NYSE and the US economy, though not so sure so much the latter. I've always been suspicious, even as a shareholder, on how they managed to make their numbers under the previous guy.  He was known to do some crazy stuff like sell art pieces within the headquarters, if he knew GE would miss the number, just to book that revenue.  Immelt is no Jack Welsh, but that may be a good thing.  They wanted to concentrate mainly in financials, they were known participants in the swaps market, so they should have expected this.  Quite honestly, I'm surprised they weren't as far along the AIG route.  My guess, at the end of the day, their tangibles businesses saved them from that. GE needs to diversify, and not pin so much on units like GE Capital.  Also be nice if they started making stuff here again for the consumer market, but hey we can all dream can't we?  Anyway, below is a snippet from the Wall Street Journal with a link at the bottom.

General Electric Co. Thursday cuts its third-quarter and full-year earnings guidance, citing "unprecedented weakness and volatility in the financial-services markets," and announced a number of major moves -- including suspending its stock buyback and likely not increasing the dividend for the first time since the 1970s -- to strengthen its capital and liquidity. The company also issued a harrowing projection for the economy, as predicting "that difficult conditions in the financial-services markets are not likely to improve in the near future." Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images CEO Jeff Immelt called GE's latest moves "tough decisions." The warnings from the giant conglomerate, long considered a bellwether for the overall economy, delivers a large blow to the markets during the Wall Street crisis that has investors increasingly cautious. The markets reacted negatively, with stock-index futures coming sharply down from earlier highs. GE shares fell 5.1% in premarket trading to $23.08. Chief Executive Jeff Immelt called GE's latest moves "tough decisions to further reduce risk and strengthen our balance sheet while maintaining our dividend." GE now expects third-quarter earnings of 43 cents to 48 cents a share, down from its July forecast of 50 cents to 54 cents a share. That 2008 target was reduced to $1.95 to $1.20 from an already-reduced $2.20 to $2.30.

GE Cuts Earnings Forecast, Suspends Stock Buyback - WSJ.com