Just after we closed the business pages yesterday, third quarter figures for Hewlett-Packard Co arrived showing earnings per share off 5% at $0.73 on sales up 8% at $3,200m:US business was flat at $1,500m and all the growth came overseas, with foreign business up 14% at $1,700m; orders were up 9% at $3,300m, with foreign orders up 9%, US up 8%; full time employment was down another 1,000 during the quarter, following falls of 1,000 in each of the two preceding quarters; the company said it was seeing a slowdown in a number of businesses, including test and measurement, medical electronics, personal computers and, ominously, in workstations.
