(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)

Late on Wednesday, Blue Nile Inc. (NASDAQ: NILE) announced that its fourth-quarter net income nearly halved to $3.52 million or 24 cents a share from $7.54 million or 45 cents a share in the same quarter, a year ago. Revenue dropped 23% to $85.79 million from $111.91 million. Analysts on average were looking for earnings of 35 cents a share on revenue of $93.39 million for the quarter. Commenting on the results, CEO Diane Irvine said "The 2008 holiday season was the most challenging one for retailers in four decades and our business was impacted by the pull back in consumer spending in this weak economic climate." For the full fiscal year 2008, net income fell to $11.63 million or 75 cents a share from $17.46 million or $1.04 a share in 2007.Revenue shrank 7.5% to $295.33 million from $319.26 million. Shares of Blue Nile plunged over 9% in extended trading.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) reported that its fourth-quarter profit slumped 52% to $136.1 million, or 20 cents a share from $286.2 million, or 42 cents, in the prior year quarter. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 34 cents. Revenue decreased 6% to $3.53 billion. Consensus estimates were for earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $3.58 billion. President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves stated "As the contraction of the economy accelerated in the fourth quarter, our businesses were affected - in particular our local businesses - but we did not deviate from our ongoing strategy: to create winning content, regardless of the marketplace. At the same time, we continue to exercise a very disciplined approach to capital investment, and have taken substantial costs out of all of our businesses, in order to help margins going forward. We are confident that our considerable operational accomplishments will help position us to capitalize on growth opportunities as soon as the economy improves." The company cut its dividend by 81%, to 5 cents a share from 27 cents a share. Moonves said that the move was a "prudent action to take while we await improvement in the economy and the credit markets." Shares of the company were up 4.68% in late trading.

The world's largest pc maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) said that its first-quarter net income declined 13% to $1.9 billion, or 75 cents a share from $2.1 billion, or 80 cents a share in the corresponding period of 2007. Revenue rose 1% to $28.8 billion from $28.5 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $2.3 billion or 93 cents a share in the latest quarter. Analysts on an average had projected earnings of 93 cents a share on revenue of $31.9 billion. Looking ahead, for fiscal second quarter, H-P expects to earn in the range of 70 cents to 72 cents a share, or 84 cents to 86 cents a share, excluding one-time items. The company also said that second quarter revenue is expected to decline between 2% and 3% from the year ago period to a range of $27.5 billion and $27.7 billion.