Waste Management falls on forecast of wider drop in earnings

Waste Management Inc., North America's largest trash hauler, fell in New York trading after saying a downturn in the recycling commodities market will hurt fourth-quarter earnings more than previously expected.

Waste Management fell $1.11, or 3.7 percent, to $28.55 at 10:14 a.m. on the New York Stock Exchange. The Houston-based company's shares dropped 8.4 percent this year through yesterday.

Fourth-quarter earnings will decline by 4 cents to 8 cents a share, compared with an Oct. 30 forecast of as much as 3 cents, the company said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Commodity prices have plunged in the second half as the global economy slowed and credit markets tightened. Prices in the recycling market have declined by as much as 60 percent through November compared with a year earlier, Waste Management said in the filing.

Chief Executive Officer David Steiner has been cutting less- profitable routes as slowing residential construction cut trash- hauling volume.

Waste Management controls about 25 percent of North America's trash-disposal industry, according to Standard & Poor's equity analyst Stewart Scharf.