Q3 doubts torpedo Yahoo! shares

A little excitement in the US markets today, what with a military coup in Thailand and Yahoo! sharing its concern over advertising revenues in Q3.

Sue Decker, Yahoo!s chief financial officer (CFO), today noted a slowdown in the growth (our emphasis) of auto and financial advertising, Reuters reports. Upshot: Q3 revenues will be at the bottom of the $1.115bn - $1.225bn range indicated by the company in its July earnings statement

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Decker said the advertising slowdown was a "new trend. It's been two to three weeks and we don't know yet if it's an indicator of a broader slowdown."

So it's "watch and wait" for Yahoo!, but not for equities traders, who sent its shares plummeting 13 per cent. Decker's musings had a knock-on effect on other internet majors, with Google, Amazon and eBay shares all falling today. ®