Damaging chip fab cap equipment misinformation du jour: LSI's scaleback of investment...
(From Briefing.com)
LSI LOGIC CORP. (LSI) 22 15/16 -3/4. The shakes are again rumbling through the semiconductor equipment maker group as yesterday LSI Logic said that it planned to spend less on capital equipment outlays than previously anticipated. Accordingly, the stocks of semiconductor equipment makers have reacted adversely to this view, although the re-emergence of a negative view towards the tech sector given the volatile situation in Asia has not helped matters. Yesterday, LSI Logic said at a financial analysts meeting that it would likely spend about $250 million on its plant facility in Gresham Oregon, about half the amount that is expected to be spent in 1997. Prior to yesterday's meeting, the Wall Street view was that LSI would probably spend around $400 million at its Oregon facility in 1998. However, given the continued unsettling market trends in Asia, it has not taken much for investors to interpret this scaled-back spending plan by LSI to mean that there will be less spending on capital equipment by all chip makers. In fact, this is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water as many good companies are getting a hair cut today with little evidence that this is the new trend by all other chip makers. At present, Applied Materials (AMAT 34 -2 3/8) and Novellus Systems (NVLS 44 3/4 -1 3/4) are being marked down, but not as much as other high-flying equipment makers like Veeco Instruments (VECO 42 3/8 -4 5/16) and AST Lithography (ASMLF 72 3/8 -5 1/8). |
