Forest-products firm Weyerhaeuser (WY: sentiment, chart, options) is down at midday after the company reported a first-quarter loss of $148 million, or 70 cents per share. Excluding charges, write-downs, and gains, the company's loss totaled 24 cents per share, more than reversing its 20-cent profit in the year-ago period. Revenue for the quarter dropped 24% to $3.39 billion, while revenue from continuing operations tumbled 21% to $2.67 billion.

Ahead of the report, analysts were expecting a per-share loss of just 17 cents on $3.63 billion in revenue. President and CEO Daniel Fulton noted that "Business conditions are extremely challenging... Since many of our products are dependent upon single-family housing starts, we've experienced record-low product prices when adjusted for inflation."

Additionally, WY said that it plans to use some of the proceeds from the sale of its containerboard packaging and recycling business to pay down its debt.

Technically, the stock is down 1.6% at last check. The equity has struggled against its descending 80-day moving average recently, and WY is back below this trendline due to today's drop.