What's your analysis of today's news for PWAV?:
TI ,semiconductor makers off on Asia worries
NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Texas Instruments Inc and other semiconductor makers lost ground Friday as investors dumped the stocks on renewed worries that weak demand in Asia will hurt the companies' bottom lines.
''Once a week, investors wake up and see this problem is not going to go away,'' said analyst Drew Peck of Cowen & Co.
Texas Instruments fell 3-3/8 to 58-1/8, while microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD - news) dipped 1-7/16 to 23-9/16 in late afternoon trading.
Investors took scare of chipmaker VLSI Technology Inc (VLSI - news) warning late Thursday that its first-quarter earnings and sales would fall significantly short of Wall Street expectations because of weak Asian demand for its wireless components, analysts said.
VSLI shares plummeted 5-5/16 to 19-7/16.
Texas Instruments, which derives about 31 percent of its revenues from Asian sales -- of which more than half to Japan -- remains ''near-term cautious'' about its sales there, a Wall Street analyst said. She added, however, that the company told her demand for its products was still strong, especially in Europe and the U.S.
Peck, who has a long-term buy rating on Texas Instruments, said he was ''quite concerned'' about the short-term effect of Asia's economic slowdown on the company's sales. ''We haven't seen the last of this,'' he added.
Analysts attributed the sell-off in part to profit taking, as the sector has surged in the past six weeks. Texas Instruments, for example, saw its stock appreciate more than 50 percent in six weeks, from a low of 40-1/4 on January 9 to a high of 62-5/8 Thursday.
Among other chip makers, Micron Technology Inc (MU - news) lost 1-13/16 to 33-3/16 and bellwether Intel Corp (INTC - news) lost 2-1/4 to 90-1/16 Friday. |
