William: Try SCI -- The following is an excerpt from today's news -- there is a lot of confusion out there Bill -- send them an email and tell them to stop thinking about it. I would debate you myself but I lack self-confidence.
Friday September 29, 4:28 pm Eastern Time
First Intel, now Apple: Has PC growth hit a wall?
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Financial warnings by stylish computer maker Apple Inc. (NasdaqNM:AAPL - news) and chip powerhouse Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) have stoked fears that personal computer demand is slowing, even as the industry enters its busiest season.
While no one piece of data is conclusive, and some bright spots remain, the growing number and scale of setbacks is creating a momentum of its own that threatens to spark further dislocations in the closely intertwined industries.
On Thursday, Apple issued a sweeping warning, saying business had slowed on all fronts. The warning followed one by Intel, which makes the computer chips used by most of Apple's rivals. Intel warned a week ago that it was seeing slack European sales.
More bad news has come from printer maker Lexmark (NYSE:LXK - news), with trouble in Europe and its consumer businesses, and SCI Systems (NYSE:SCI - news), one of the world's leading contract manufacturers, which warned of weak PC and consumer electronics businesses.
On Friday, Bear Stearns top technology analyst, Andy Neff, departed from his normally upbeat stance and cut his rating on all the sector's top names: not just Apple, but Compaq (NYSE:CPQ - news), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP - news), Gateway (NYSE:GTW - news) and Dell (NasdaqNM:DELL - news).
``We want to wait for the evidence pointing to stronger demand trends and/or compelling valuations in order to revisit our rating,'' Neff advised clients in a research note.
Morgan Stanley's PC analyst raised similar concerns about the macro-economic environment's threat to PC demand |
