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US GDP revised to a 6.2% drop in Q4 08 by ci-online staff The US economy contracted much worse than feared in the final quarter of last year- by 6.2% - raising the nervousness of embattled investors. The original report of an economy shrinkage of 3.8% for Q4 was better than the analysts' forecast of 5.4%, but today's startlingly poor revised ...

arnings look grim, again With fourth-quarter's pain widely known, 2009 outlooks come into focus By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch Last update: 8:11 p.m. EST Jan. 9, 2009 Comments: 742 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- For any company not tied to consumer must-haves like health care and groceries, earnings in the fourth quarter likely made the same swan dive as the broader economy. "Fourth-quarter earnings are going to be a disaster," said Philip Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, which manages $344 billion in assets. In the quarterly reporting season that gets its unofficial start Monday, analysts polled by FactSet anticipate...