Western Digital Loss Expected to Be Less

Western Digital Corp. said its fiscal first-quarter loss will be narrower than it had forecast in July because profit margins on its computer hard drives increased.

The Lake Forest-based company said it now expects a loss of $8 million to $11 million, or 4 cents to 6 cents a share. The company said Sept. 27 that demand for its disk drives are rising, helped by orders for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox video game console.

In July, the company had forecast a loss of 8 cents to 10 cents on sales in the mid-$400-million range for the quarter ended Sept. 28.

Western Digital rose 42 cents to $2.80 on the NYSE.