Halliburton Warns on 2Q Profit Margins

Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield services company, said on Wednesday its North American profit margins would be hit harder this quarter by cost increases than it had previously expected.

Halliburton said it now expects its second-quarter North American margins to drop by between 5 and 5.5 percentage points from the first quarter, compared with the previous forecast of between 2 and 2.5 percentage points given in April.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)