Circuit City expects quarterly loss

Electronics and entertainment retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. said Monday it will report a loss in its first quarter and is withdrawing its outlook for the first half of the fiscal year.

Circuit City said it now expects a loss from continuing operations before income taxes of $80 million to $90 million for the first quarter of 2008 because of “substantially” lower sales in April of large flat panel and projection television.

The company’s shares fell more than 7 percent in extended trading after the announcement.

Circuit City said it was withdrawing its outlook because of “uncertainties in the current operating environment.”

“Although the first half of the fiscal year will be volatile due to the change in the television business, we believe that our transformation efforts will yield positive results for the full fiscal year,” said Philip J. Schoonover, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive.

Circuit City shares fell $1.35, or 7.7 percent, to $16.10 in after-hours trading. During regular trading hours, the shares had fallen 48 cents to close at $17.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. In the last 52 weeks, the stock has ranged from $17.02 to $31.54.

•Verizon Communications Inc.’s first-quarter earnings fell 8.4 percent to $1.5 billion as strong showings in the cell phone business and the crucial FiOS Internet and TV initiative were offset by the loss of income from assets the company sold over the past year.

The profit reported Monday also was hurt by a larger-than-expected loss of traditional telephone customers to cable TV companies and other rival providers, but the bottom line edged most Wall Street forecasts.

The profit for the first three months of 2007 amounted to 51 cents per share. In the same period last year, before Verizon’s spinoff of its phone directories business and another asset sale, earnings totaled $1.63 billion, or 56 cents per share. The latest results included a loss of 5 cents per share on the forced divestiture of Verizon’s stake in a Venezuelan telecommunications company as the government there nationalized assets.

•Northwest Airlines Corp., nearing the end of its bankruptcy reorganization, reported a $292 million first-quarter loss on Monday, all of it due to reorganization expenses.

The loss was an improvement from its $1.1 billion loss during the same period last year. Northwest said it would have made $100 million for the quarter ended March 31 if not for its $393 million in reorganization expenses. A year ago it would have lost $129 million if not for reorganization items.