John Joseph the SSB chip analyst who said to sell them at the top last year has upgraded them today, he has
quite a following among portfolio managers.............. and EMC just announces a 2 cent shortfall!--crosscurrents,
but still a bullish bias
07:39 ET Salomon on Semis : Hearing that Salomon Smith Barney just upgraded the semiconductor sector; firm's semi analyst John Joseph was one of the first to go negative on the sector last
summer.
07:48 ET Salomon's Semi Call : More on the call: Salomon says semi sector has hit a cyclical bottom and upgrades sector to OUTPERFORM from Neutral. On individual stocks, ups the
following to BUY from Outperform: INTC, TXN, MU, IFX, STM, AMCC, ALTR, XLNX, ACLS, NVLS. Upgraded to BUY from Neutral: AMAT, KLAC.
07:51 ET Salomon's Semi Call : Also notable were the following price target changes: MU 45 to 50, IFX 45 to 50 euros, ALTR 23 to 28, XLNX 33 to 45, AMAT 49 to 55, ACLS 16 to 18,
KLAC 34 to 48, NVLS 40 to 50. Finally, estimates were increased for MU to $0.55 from $0.50 for FY01.
08:04 ET Goldman on Semis : Goldman Sachs not yet turning bullish like Salomon; Goldman says that semiconductor sector setting up for a lousy earnings season, and that while it's too late to
be underweight the sector, there's not yet a case to be overweight.
08:14 ET Chip Sector Rally : Investors/traders piling into semiconductor stocks in response to Salomon Smith Barney sector upgrade: AMCC (+15%), XLNX (+12.5%), VTSS (+12%), TQNT (+10.7%), TXCC (+10%), ALTR (+10%), BRCM (+9.5%), INTC (+9%), ATML (+9%)... Extremely heavy pre-market volume in each of these names... Also seeing interest in the semiconductor equipment space, with AMAT (+8%) pacing the advance. |
