Look for shares of Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) to take a beating today after the office supplies retailer shocked Wall Street by predicting a huge drop in its second quarter same-stores sales.

Office Depot is going to announce its second quarter numbers later this month, and investors got a better picture of just what to expect this morning after the company stated that it is now forecasting a 10% drop in its same-store sales for the quarter, citing the slowing American economy as the main reason.

The company also warned it expects the remainder of the year to remain difficult. While the retailer believes that sales trends should improve slightly, it is remaining pessimistic. Margins for the quarter, it says, have declined by about 200 basis points than what it had previously anticipated. Even before today's revision, the company had estimated about 200 to 250 basis point decline in its margins. Looking at the rest of the year, the company thinks that its margins should increase sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.

If you are a Kroger (NYSE: KR) shopper and you think that you may have picked up some beef from the grocer recently, you may want to take a closer look at it, as reports of E. coli have prompted a recall from the grocery chain.

The recall involves beef products that were purchased between May 21 and June 8 in Michigan, and parts of the Ohio market. Kroger was forced to take this action following reports that there had been E. coli illnesses linked to beef sold in Kroger stores in the two locations.

So far, it looks as though there have been 19 reported cases in Michigan, and another 15 cases reported in the state of Ohio that can be linked back to the Kroger beef. The meat in question has been traced back to a Kroger store in Gahanna, a town in central Ohio. It does not look as though any stores in Michigan have definitely been linked to the tainted meat, but since there are reported cases of the disease in the area, you should definitely return any beef that you purchased from Kroger during the time frame in question.

It is safe to say that the past couple of years have been tough on shareholders of Circuit City (NYSE: CC), and today is no different as the company posted a large loss for its fiscal first quarter. Shares of the electronics retailer are down 7.5% after the company posted a loss of $1 a share for its most recent quarter.

The company stated that the main reason for its poor performance last quarter was weak sales performance in the company's established stores. This really should not come as a big surprise to us since we have been well aware of the company's faltering sales over the past couple of years. On the whole, same-store sales dropped by 11.3%, and continues to affirm the belief that Circuit City definitely has its work cut out for it if it ever wants to start regaining its lost market share.

The total loss on the quarter totaled $164.8 million, about triple the $54.6 million loss it recorded for the same period last year. I wish I could say that things are looking brighter down the road but that is just not the case, as the retailer is expected to post another large loss for its second quarter. Analysts had been expecting to see a loss of $143.4 million for the current quarter, but the company issued weaker guidance, stating that it expects to see a loss of somewhere between $170 and $185 million.

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

Consumer Confidence came out. It's at a 16-year low. Oil is taking a breather as this is written, off its all-time high of $133 recently. No one thinks it's going back to $100 or lower. Not ever. There's too much demand from China, India and Brazil for that. Housing stats are enough to induce stomach problems with first quarter prices down 14.4% from the same quarter last year. They were accelerating downward as the quarter ended, setting up for a miserable number for this quarter.

On the political front, the Democrats are locked in a battle over their nominee, both of whom want out of the Iraqi war but also want to raise taxes on higher incomes. The Republican nominee wants to stay the course in Iraq but wants to keep taxes low. It's the usual splits about taxes, government vs. private enterprise. It doesn't matter who wins, change is coming. Most likely the candidate that can offer resolutions for the high cost of gas and food will get most of the votes. Neither problem is easily or quickly solved. And certainly not by a legislative fiat. But incentives can come from Washington.

Shares of AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) crashed today on Wall Street on a string a bad news out of its principal subsidiary, American Airlines, as current record-high oil prices continue to wreak havoc on the airline industry.

Oil prices have been continuing to soar, and earlier today crude traded through the $133 mark, and nearly busted $134, trading as high as $133.82.

What does this mean for airlines? You guessed it... major changes in order to combat the rising costs of keeping their planes in the air, and after announcing a few new changes today, AMR took the full brunt of Wall Street, as nervous traders pushed the already beaten-up stock down another 24.2%.

So what exactly got the market so spooked? Well, I am not really sure which of the following was the final nail in the coffin; you can almost just take your pick:

• The company announced that it would be slashing the number of flights that it offers
  
• The company announced that it would start charging for all checked luggage
  
• And, last but not least, the company is being forced to reduce its workforce

It wasn't that long ago that Wall Street was in love with Crocs, Inc (NASDAQ: CROX), the maker of the trendy slippers that took the world by storm last year. After going on a tear for most of 2007, the stock started to break down last November, and has been in a tail spin for the past 5 months.

The company is going to be reporting its first quarter numbers tomorrow after the market close, and all signs are pointing to yet another troublesome quarter for the company. Earnings.com is showing Wall Street estimates of 10 cents a share, but that number does not really hold too much water after the company announced a much weaker forecast last month in its preliminary release.

Last month, CROX shocked Wall Street when it said that it expected to see a 5 cent per share loss in the quarter, and revenues falling somewhere between $195 and $200 million. After that news came out, the already troubled stock took a serious nose dive, and gave up around 40% of its value.

Shares of consumer goods giant Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) have been taking a beating today after the company failed to meet analyst estimates for its fiscal third quarter.

At first glance, it looked like a fantastic quarter for the company, as profit rose by a remarkable 82%, but things start to look less than rosy once we take a closer look. Analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings during the quarter of 24 cents a share, and were disappointed to see the company come in below this, with only 22 cents a share.

This is the second quarter in a row in which the company posted weaker than expected earnings, and is quickly erasing the progress that the stock has been making since the beginning of March.

It's another day of cancellations for American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) -- as its current round of plane inspections is moving slower than had been anticipated.

Roughly 900 of the airlines flights have been canceled today, representing around 40% of its usual daily flight volume. The delays started on Tuesday when the American announced that it had to re-run inspections that it held last month after the FAA decided that the work done did not meet its standards.

On Tuesday the airline canceled 460 flights, and then another 1,094 yesterday, so it has been a tough few days for passengers trying to get to their destinations. All in all, over 100,000 passengers have been effected by the current situation at American.

American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) -- is once again canceling massive amounts of flights in order to inspect the bundling of wires in some of its airplanes. You may recall, that this is the same situation that led to around 400 cancellations last month, and this current inspection is estimated to affect even more flights, with up to 500 flights being canceled.

The current round of cancellations, which represents about 20% of total American flights, started late Tuesday afternoon, and was expected to last Tuesday night and into Wednesday, and possibly even beyond.

Passengers that were scheduled to fly the canceled American flights have been switched over to alternative American flights, or placed on other airlines that service the selected routes.

Last night, handset maker Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced that it would be slashing another 2,600 jobs as the company continues to battle lower sales. The current job cuts represent approximately 4% of its total job force as of the end of 2007 of 66,000 employees.

It wasn't that long ago that Motorola was a major force in the world of mobile phones, but over the past two years the company has definitely fallen from grace among consumers. Two years ago the company was the world's second largest handset maker, but that status is no more, and the company is currently sitting in the fourth spot overall.

Analysts have blamed the company's drop due to lack of innovation, and some have gone so far as to predict that the company's handset business is doomed if Motorola can not pick up the pace and start to pump out new and fresh ideas for consumers to gobble up.

With the recent surge in oil prices, it should come as no surprise that we are getting hit hard at the gas pumps, and according to AAA, prices moved to a new record high last night of $3.303 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

This is the second day in a row that gas prices have set new highs, after jumping more than a penny overnight. At these current levels, prices are now a massive 22% higher than they were this time last year.

Congress has been trying to get to the bottom of the situation, and earlier this week they heard testimony from executives of 5 of the world's largest oil companies regarding the current price explosion. Some analysts are predicting that Congress may have to step in to take some action to help combat the record-high prices by making the purchase of high-risk oil contracts tougher to do, which could lead to lower prices. Whether or not that takes place remains to be seen.

Two years after coming out of bankruptcy, ATA airlines has once again been forced to file for chapter 11. The airline canceled all flights, and has advised travelers to start to look for alternative travel arrangements.

The airline operated roughly 50 flights a day, and had more than 2,200 employees working. On its website, ATA has issued a formal statement and blamed the final straw for its collapse on the loss of a key military contract. In 2006, the company had won a $335 million dollar contract from the U.S. Air Force for international airlift services.

In its statement, ATA has advised passengers to contact their credit card company, or travel agent to discuss the options to get refunded for their unused tickets.

Shares of drug maker Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE: MRK) are trading down 3.0% in early day trading after the company stated its 2007 profit forecast, which fell short of analysts' expectations. The company also forecast an earnings increase in 2008 due to strong sales of its HPV vaccine Gardasil and diabetes treatment Januvia.

Merck announced it expects earnings between $3.08 and $3.14 a share for 2007, while analysts, on average, predicted earnings of $3.15 a share. Including items, the company predicted its earnings will fall in a range between $1.45 to $1.51 per share.

Looking ahead to 2008, the company now anticipates its profit will rise to a range of $3.28 to $3.38 a share helped by increased sales of its products. Including a $100 million restructuring charge and an AstraZeneca partnership gain, the company forecast earnings between $3.96 to $4.06 a share in 2008. But the target offered by Merck for 2008 also missed analysts' predictions for earnings of $3.39 a share.

Shares of Sears Holding Corp. (NYSE: SHLD) have been taking a beating in today's action after a dismal third quarter earnings report this morning. At one point shares had dipped as much as 16%, but with an hour left to go in the session shares have moved slightly higher, only showing a 12% drop as shares are trading down $14 to $101.56.

If you ask me, the stock is doing better than it probably should, considering just how poor this morning's report was. Analysts had been expecting to see the retailer show net income of 53 cents per share for its third quarter. The actual net income? ONE PENNY! It is not often that you see such a miss.

During 2007 the company showed earnings of 80 cents for its third quarter, and today's report represents the largest year over year drop in income since Sears and K-Mart merged back in 2005, and the first consecutive quarter earnings decline.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) hit the earnings confessional after the close, reporting fourth-quarter results of $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a 35% jump from year-ago results. As same-store sales rose 4%, revenue hit $2.44 billion, up 22% from last year's $2 billion take. Both headline numbers were on par with analysts' expectations. As I pointed out this morning, recent history indicated that SBUX had decent odds of coming in even with the Street's consensus view.

What the Street wasn't expecting, however, was the company's lowered guidance for the upcoming fiscal year, citing rising commodity costs, increased competitive pressures, and softer consumer spending. For its year that wraps up in September, SBUX expects to earn between $1.02 and $1.05 per share, representing year-over-year growth of 17% to 21% from fiscal 2007. SBUX had previously targeted earnings growth of 20% to 22%. Revenue is expected to rise 17% to 18%. Same-store sales are now expected to rise between 3% and 5%, narrowing an earlier range of 3% to 7%.

The company is also reducing its expansion goals, lowering the number of new-store openings planned to 2,500 from 2,600.

In after-hours trading, the shares have plunged nearly 9%. If this activity follows through into the regular session tomorrow, SBUX will be poised to hit a new 52-week low. Remember that potential technical support in the form of the 80-month moving average resides about 10% below the stock's closing levels.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.