Exar, Micron, Owens-Illinois, Wal-Mart: U.S. Equity Preview

By Lu Wang

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in U.S. trading tomorrow. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are as of 5:30 p.m. in New York, unless otherwise specified.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures expiring in March declined 12.70, or 1.5 percent, to 858.60. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 158, or 1.9 percent, to 8,388. Nasdaq-100 Index futures slipped 12.50, or 1 percent, to 1,184.50.

Exar Corp. (EXAR US) fell 35 cents, or 5.5 percent, to $6 in trading after the official close of exchanges. The semiconductor component supplier lowered its sales forecast, predicting revenue of as much as $27 million in the fiscal third quarter.

Owens-Illinois Inc. (OI US) rose 99 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $23.23. The world’s largest maker of glass containers will replace Wachovia Corp. (WB US) in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, S&P said in a statement.

Scana Corp. (SCG US) will replace Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER US) while Flir Systems Inc. (FLIR US) will take the place of National City Corp. (NCC US) in the benchmark. Scana fell 1 percent to $33.98 in regular trading and Flir lost 1.3 percent to $26.77.

Micron Technology Inc. (MU US) dropped 16 cents, or 6.8 percent, to $2.20. The largest U.S. producer of memory chips posted a wider first-quarter loss than analysts anticipated after falling prices forced the company to write down the value of its inventory.

PLX Technology Inc. (PLXT US): The chipmaker reduced its fourth-quarter sales forecast, saying it expects as much as $14.2 million. The company had projected revenue of as much as $18 million. The stock dropped 12 percent to $1.77 in regular trading.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT US): The world’s largest retailer said it will pay at least $352 million to settle 63 federal and state class actions claiming the company cheated hourly workers and forced them to work through breaks. The stock fell 1.3 percent to $55.29 in regular trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lu Wang in New York at lwang8@bloomberg.net