Hey Janice, do you have a clue? How can 0.91 be good?
As expected, the book to bill was a total disaster again, despite the fact the dim bulbs in the media touted it
as a "good" number. Here's just the facts, man: sales (billings) fell 7.5% from May to June and are down 27.9% from
June 1995. Orders "rose" from $3.09 billion to $3.11 billion. This is where the SIA has lied with statistics. Last month
they claimed that the orders rose from $3.09 to $3.10 billion. But, they have now revised that number back to $3.09
billion. In other words, sales are awful, but they are still much higher than orders. And sales are declining. Orders are
not declining, but they are also not rising. When they revise next month we'll see that the $3.11 billion was another
estimate error and they'll be back to $3.09. Not that a rise to $3.11 would be so great, but it does give the permabulls
a slim ray of hope. And the key is that sales are now $3.43 billion and orders show that that weak level is not
sustainable. MB |
