What made me take note of HFF inc. is the fact that they are the only Western Pennsylvania stock that I track that is UP today. They’re not just up, they’re up 10%. As of this writing, I don’t see any particular reason for it. It did spark some curiosity on my part, so I decided to review their press release for 3Q 2008. Here’s some pretty scary wording:

In the face of these challenging conditions as well as a slowing global economic climate, especially in the U.S., the Company generated third quarter total revenue of approximately $31.0 million compared to approximately $68.0 million in the third quarter of 2007, which represents a decrease of approximately $37.0 million, or 54.4%. The Company reported an operating loss of $0.1 million for the third quarter of 2008 compared to operating income of approximately $13.6 million in the comparable period of 2007, which represents a decrease of approximately $13.7 million, or 100.7%.

If your profit is down anything over 100%, it’s not a good sign.

To satsify your curiosity, what is HFF?

a leading provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry based on production transaction volume and is one of the largest full-service commercial real estate financial intermediaries in the country.

I’m guessing that there are quite a few empty office buildings at the moment.