One of the big surprises in the poor quarterly results was a $44 million loss taken for currency translations.

Foreign investors do not want to risk losing stock value through unfavorable currency translations.

They expected the company to lose money on currency translations and tax rate adjustments in the quarter.

Because of currency translations, investors would have lost some of those gains when they translated them back into American dollars.

He also said severe negative currency translations created $150 million to $200 million in losses.

But we don't want to pay for earnings increases that are due only to the currency translation.

Mr. Kumar said the company had overcome negative foreign currency translations of $90 million for the year.

Revenues were up 13 percent, to $5.08 billion, although much of the revenue growth came from currency translations.

During that period, he said, capital appreciation of stocks should make up for any losses from currency translations.

But currency translation is hitting the company hard, a spokesman said, and will reduce per-share earnings about 7 percent in the fourth quarter.