NEW YORK (CNNfn) - After the closing bell on Tuesday, personal finance software maker Intuit reported a narrower-than-expected loss, and grocery store chain Albertson's warned on its latest earnings.
In addition, Bank One president Verne Istock is set to retire after losing out in a bid to become the company's chief executive while forest products Web site ForestExpress named a new CEO.
The Federal Reserve decided to leave U.S. interest rates unchanged on Tuesday amid signs that inflation is under wraps for now even as the economy booms. The Fed is expected to release the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Thursday.
And looking ahead to other economic indicators coming out later in the week, the Commerce Department is scheduled to report Thursday on durable goods orders for the month of July. Durable goods are those that last three years or more, such as large appliances. On Friday, the government plans to report on existing home sales for the month of July.
Intuit reports a narrow-than-expected loss
Intuit Inc. (INTU: Research, Estimates), the maker of Quicken and TurboTax personal finance software, reported a fourth-quarter loss from operations that was narrower than forecast, but profits rose 35 percent for the entire fiscal year.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit said that for the latest quarter ended July 31, it had a loss, excluding gains from the sale of investments, of $8.2 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss, excluding gains from the sale of investments, of $16.6 million, or 8 cents, a year ago.
On that basis, the results bested the consensus forecast for a loss of 9 cents a share, according to a First Call/Thomson Financial poll of analysts. Intuit's quarterly results fluctuate due to strong sales ahead of tax season.
Including pretax gains on the sale of investments, the company had income of $17.1 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with the year-ago quarter's income of $263 million, or $1.29 a share, which included pretax gains on the sale of investments of $510.5 million.
Sales in the quarter declined, as expected, to $162.3 million from $168.3 million, due to the closing of 22 branches as part of its acquisition of Rock Financial, lower overseas sales because of the timing of European product launches and Y2K sales skewing revenue for Quicken and its accounting software QuickBooks into the early part of last year.
Intuit shares ended Tuesday trading down 3/16 to 46-1/16, but the company's stock has risen about 73 percent in the past 12 months.
Albertson's warns on earnings
Grocery store operator Albertson's Inc. (ABS: Research, Estimates) warned on Tuesday that it expects to report lower-than-projected earnings for its fiscal second quarter, due to weak sales and higher operating expenses.
The Boise, Idaho-based company said it expects to report earnings of about 50 cents per diluted share, excluding merger-related costs, for its quarter ended Aug. 3. Including merger-related costs, the company expects to report earnings of about 46 cents per diluted share.
Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial had forecast earnings of 62 cents per share.
The company blamed lower-than-projected growth in same-store sales, or sales from stores open for more than a year. It also said operating expenses were higher than projected.
Total sales for the quarter are forecast to reach $9.2 billion, up 4.6 percent over the comparable period last year, excluding divested store sales.
Albertson's stock finished regular trading down 3/8 at 31 on Tuesday.
Bank One president, long-time executive retires
Bank One Corp. (ONE: Research, Estimates) said the company's long-time executive and president Verne Istock, who lost out in a bid to become chief executive of the No. 4 U.S. bank holding company, would retire on September 30.
Istock has been with Chicago-based Bank One and its predecessor organizations for 37 years, but he lost out in an effort to become permanent CEO when former Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates) executive Jamie Dimon was hired as chairman and chief executive on March 27.
Along with Istock's retirement, the company's board of directors will be cut to 13 members from 19.
ForestExpress names Keith Russell CEO
Keith Russell, a former vice president of The Boston Consulting Group, was named chief executive of ForestExpress, a soon-to-launch electronic marketplace for the forest product industry.
Russell, who had been acting CEO of ForestExpress since May, helped lead Boston Consulting's electronic commerce group in the southeast U.S., and played a leading role in launching another similar electronic marketplace for commodities, he said in an interview.
ForestExpress was formed by Georgia-Pacific Corp. (GP: Research, Estimates), International Paper Co. (IP: Research, Estimates), and Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY: Research, Estimates) as a Web site that expects to bring together buyers and sellers of building materials and paper products.
ForestExpress will compete against other electronic marketplaces for forest products, including PaperExchange.com and YardConnect.com.
 
--compiled by staff writer Joseph Lee
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