Our emphatic warning last Wednesday If you have shares, prepare to sell them now (CI No 894) was speedily vindicated as the Wall Street and London markets both started a nosedive on Thursday, and things look no better in West Germany: Siemens AG says that its sales fell 11% in the first five months of its current fiscal to the equivalent of $11,110m, and that orders were up only 2% thanks to a 9% decline in West Germany, offset by a 12% rise in the rest of the world; the company’s decision to trim its dividend by 8.3% was seen as boding ill for the company’s outlook for the rest of the year.