Can you help explains these two simple sentences?

Question

1) Telecom equipment maker Tellabs told Wall Street it will just about break even this quarter, falling short of expectations.

Q1: just about break? break = bankrupt or something else?

Q2: what falls short of expectations? The fact that the company said it's about break?

2) Latest on the U.S. economy shows the index of leading economic indicators, which looks six to nine months ahead, rose more in May than any other month in over a year.

Q: Why it's not "any other month in a year"? any difference from "in over a year"?

Answer 1

1) The English expression "break even" means that income and expenses are equal, so there is no loss and there is no profit. It's not as nice as showing a profit, but it's better than showing a loss.

What is falling short of expectations is that analysts on Wall Street apparently expected that Tellabs would show a profit. In other words, the income of Tellabs is less than expected, or the income falls short of expectations.

2) The phrase "in over a year" means that the statement is considering a period of time longer than a year. This is similar to the expression "I waited over four hours" to mean "I waited longer than four hours."

Answer 2

to break even means to remain the same ,neither increase nor decrease.

The company expected to improve but did not.

q2.  In over a year means .Months from previous year are included not

the  months of same year. (June to May).

Answer 3

1) Telecom equipment maker Tellabs told Wall Street it will just about break even this quarter, falling short of expectations.

Q1: just about break? break = bankrupt or something else?

Not necessarily bankrupt but they aren't going to make a profit this quarter.  For example they earned $1,000,000 but their expenses were $1,200,000

Q2: what falls short of expectations? The fact that the company said it's about break?

The earnings fell short of expectations.  Maybe they expected to earn $1,350,000 but only earned $1,000,000.

2) Latest on the U.S. economy shows the index of leading economic indicators, which looks six to nine months ahead, rose more in May than any other month in over a year.

Q: Why it's not "any other month in a year"? any difference from "in over a year"?

If they had said "in a year" that would have meant in the last 12 months.  Since they said "in over a year" that means more than the last 12 months.

Answer 4

Break even= come on with no losses and no gains, just even

over a year means more than a year, any other month in a year would just be that year