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Wednesday July 25 5:34 PM ET

By Paul Thomasch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - DuPont Co., the No. 1 U.S. chemical company, on Wednesday announced a second-quarter loss and 1,500 more job cuts as it struggled with weak demand for its chemicals and plastics during the economic downturn.

DuPont, based in Wilmington, Delaware, cautioned that business would be even worse in the third-quarter with the economic slowdown

spreading from the United States to Europe and Asia. The company warned its earnings for the third-quarter could fall 70 percent or more

from a year ago, a much bigger drop than analysts had been expecting.

``Industries important to many of our customers -- electronics, automotive, textiles and chemicals -- have been particularly affected by

the economic downturn,'' said Charles O. Holliday Jr., DuPont chairman and chief executive. ``This has temporarily reduced fundamental demand for our products.''

DuPont posted a net loss of $213 million for the second-quarter, compared with earnings of $688 million in the period a year ago. Before one-time items, income fell 54 percent to $432 million, or 41 cents a share, from $949 million, or 90 cents a share, a year ago.

Shares of the company rose 29 cents to $43.21 on the New York Stock Exchange. The results -- which were in line with analysts' lowered expectations -- come during a restructuring for the company. It has agreed to sell its pharmaceuticals business to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. for $7.8 billion and is cutting thousands of jobs.

First announced in April, DuPont raised the number of job cuts by 1,500 to 5,500 workers, or six percent of total staff. Another 1,300 contract workers will also lose their jobs, as previously announced.

NO RECOVERY IN SIGHT

Other chemical companies, including Germany's BASF AG and Bayer AG, have also been hard hit this year. Dow Chemical Co., DuPont's top U.S. competitor, is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, but has already issued a profit warning.

Chemical companies have been hit on several fronts, as the economic slowdown has hurt demand for chemicals and plastics used in everything from car manufacturing, to apparel, to construction products. Even while their sales have fallen, companies have seen their costs rise, with high prices for crude oil and natural gas further undercutting profits.

``They managed to meet lowered expectations, but the trends in the quarter were worse than I thought,'' said Bill Young, an analyst with

Credit Suisse First Boston. ``People keep pushing out the time frame for a recovery. I don't know when it's going to be.''

CHEMICAL CHALLENGE

DuPont's warning that conditions would worsen in the third-quarter and not show much improvement in the fourth-quarter underscores worries about the worldwide manufacturing slowdown, analysts said.

``They are among the most global of players and have tentacles all over the world,'' said Frank Mitsch of Wall Street Chemical Advisors. ``They are clearly seeing that things are not very robust.'' Consolidated sales for the second-quarter fell to $7.0 billion from $7.9 billion, the company said, due to lower volumes in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

DuPont warned about its second-quarter profits earlier this month, when analysts were expecting it to earn 53 cents a share. After the warning, analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call cut second-quarter forecasts to 35 cents to 45 cents a share, with a mean estimate of 40 cents

DuPont took one-time charges of $645 million in the quarter for employee severance costs and plant shutdowns that are part of its

restructuring. The company is hoping to pull annual cost savings of $400 million from the restructuring by the end of next year.

Tuesday July 24 8:26 AM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - Athletic shoe and apparel maker Reebok International Ltd. on Tuesday reported a 32 percent increase in net income, beating the high end of Wall Street estimates, as it secures more shelf space among retailers.

Canton, Massachusetts-based Reebok said it earned $14.1 million, or 24 cents a share. That compared with net income of $10.7 million, or 19 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts were looking for Reebok to earn between 20 cents and 23 cents a share, with a consensus of 21 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

Reebok's second-quarter net sales in U.S. dollars were $711 million, compared with $685 million in the year-ago quarter. Reebok shares closed at $34.30 Monday, up 25 percent this year and outperforming the nearly 10 decline in the S&P 500 Index. Shares of No. 1 athletic shoe maker Nike Inc. are down 17 percent.