Limtex, I don't know if continued short selling is holding back the price of QCOM, or if it is due to the earnings warnings from the likes of Motorola last week, and Texas Instruments today. We know that Texas Instruments provides chips for Nokia, confirming Nokia's previously published views on weakness in the wireless area. But we also know that Nokia may be experiencing more problems than QUALCOMM, in terms of weakness in demand for GSM compared to CDMA.
We also can infer that QUALCOMM is not immune from this overall weakness, since Kyocera, which now owns the former QCOM handset manufacturing division (the terrestrial part), has also issued an earnings warning today. Notwithstanding the generally good news coming out of China and Japan, I can see why QUALCOMM might be subject to some temporary downward pressures on its stock, but not to the extent that we see currently. To be specific, if we concede there is weaker demand for the next couple of quarters, it might justify the stock remaining near 85 or 90, not 60 to 65!
Furthermore, the issue of weaker demand for wireless would be more than countered by the latest series of chips announced by QUALCOMM, giving it a potential foothold in every wireless market anywhere in the world. I guess it will take some time for this notion to sink in, but in the meantime, I find it difficult to believe that the current weakness in the stock price reflects any significant short positions.
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