"Chip equipment makers tumble on Intel spending plans"
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday January 15, 5:07 pm Eastern Time
NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Makers of semiconductor equipment tumbled in after-hours trade after No. 1 chip maker Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news). said it planned to cut its capital spending budget 25 percent in 2001, below many analysts' expectations.
Shares of Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - news), the largest maker of equipment used to make
microchips, dropped 6.8 percent in after-hours trading to $42.50 from $45.61 at the closing bell.
Other decliners included KLA-Tencor Corp., which fell to $51.80 from $55.31, and Novellus Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:NVLS - news), which fell to $39.56 from $42.31.
Intel, whose capital spending accounts for about 20 percent of the entire industry's budget, reported capital spending in 2001 of $7.3 billion, which was used to upgrade its factories to the latest technologies.
In its report on fourth quarter earnings, Intel Tuesday said it would spend $5.5 billion on capital spending in 2002, a 25 percent drop.
``We knew they were coming down, but that's really sharp,'' said Banc of America Securities analyst Mark FitzGerald. FitzGerald had forecast Intel would cut its spending to $6.5 billion.
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