During Atmel's last conference call Atmel said the 10 mil short fall in revenues was do to currency exchange rates of the Euro and Yen. I know nothing about how this works and I'm attaching an article talking about this. Can someone give me a short lesson on exchange rates and let me know if the dollar -vs- Euro & Yen in this article will bode well for Atmel. Thanks!
Mario
Wednesday June 2, 8:08 pm Eastern Time
U.S. stocks end mixed, dollar soars against euro
By Jan Paschal
NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) - Blue-chip stocks fell on Wednesday, settling lower on
interest-rate fears, while bargain hunters engineered a tech-stock rally and the U.S. dollar hit
another record against Europe's single currency.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended off 18.37 points, or 0.17 percent, at 10,577.89.
In the broader market, declining issues led advances 1,612 to 1,334 on active volume of
726 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
The technology-driven Nasdaq Composite index rose 20.38 points, or 0.84 percent, to 2,432.41.
The dollar peaked Wednesday at $1.0327 per euro after remarks from European financial leaders wiped out worries that the
European Central Bank might intervene to rescue its currency. The dollar also gained against the Japanese yen.
Gold fell. Oil, coffee and wheat prices rose.
The yield of the benchmark U.S. 30-year bond ended at 5.93 percent, unchanged from Tuesday's close, after rising as high as
5.985 percent earlier in the day.
The Dow slid more than 130 points and the long bond's yield shot up to near the psychologically important 6 percent mark
following news of a 9.2 percent jump in sales of new single-family homes in April -- much stronger than expectations. Sizzling
U.S. car sales, by all except General Motors Corp.(NYSE:GM - news), also reflected the robust economy, fanning fears of an
interest-rate hike.
Wall Street will face more key economic numbers this week, with the May nonfarm payrolls report due on Friday. On
Thursday, investors will look at weekly U.S. jobless claims for the week ended May 29 and April factory orders.
Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer of First Albany Corp., called the leap in new home sales ''very troubling.'' And
economists said it added to investors' queasy feeling that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates soon.
But Thomas McManus, equity strategist at Banc of America Securities in New York, borrowed a bit from Mark Twain when
he said he believes the stock market is "still an attractive place to invest.
"Despite the fact that bond yields have risen dramatically in recent days, the reports of the stock market's demise have been
wholly exaggerated.
''Clearly, people are concerned, with popular sectors like techs and banks getting hurt'' recently on concerns about valuations
and interest rates, he said.
But on Wednesday, ''the average stock was up,'' McManus said. ''The Value Line Index was up 7 basis points, at 1,005. The
rising earnings trend is helping the average company.''
Bob Austrian, technology analyst at Banc of America Securities in San Francisco, said the reasons for the day-to-day price
swings of tech stocks aren't as noteworthy as the overall trend that ''technology is a big part of the new digital economy and
e-commerce is very, very important.''
Gains by high technology stocks Wednesday included Dell Computer Corp., which rose 7/16 to 33-1/2; Intel
Corp.(Nasdaq:INTC - news), which added 1-1/4 to 51-15/16, and Cisco Systems, which jumped 3-1/16 to 110-1/8.
But brokerage firms' stocks got whacked for the second straight day, on concern that online trading will eat into revenues of
full-service U.S. brokers. Merrill Lynch lost 4-9/16 at 70-7/16. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE:MWD - news)
fell 3-1/2 to 88-1/4. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (NYSE:DLJ - news) was down 2-3/8 to 59-3/8. PaineWebber Group
(NYSE:PWJ - news) was off 2-15/16 at 41-13/16 and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - news) slipped 1-1/8 to 63-1/4.
In late New York trade, the dollar was almost one cent higher at $1.0360 per euro from $1.0448 per euro at Tuesday's close.
Against the yen, it rose to 121.38 from 120.73.
In New York, gold settled lower on Wednesday, staying near Tuesday's 20-year spot lows as support continued to evaporate
in the face of Britain's July 6 gold reserve sale, dealers said. On the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange,
August gold fell $2.40 per troy ounce to $267.10, just brushing Tuesday's $267 contract low.
Crude oil for July delivery ended higher Wednesday at $16.65 a barrel, up 31 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange,
amid optimism that the American Petroleum Institute's report after the end of regular trading would show a drop in U.S.
gasoline inventories. Instead, gasoline stocks rose.
Coffee futures prices rose on fear of a damaging frost in Brazil next week and wheat futures also gained as rain delayed
planting. At New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, coffee for delivery in July ended up 0.65 cent at 121.50 cents a
pound. And on the Chicago Board of Trade, soft red winter wheat for July delivery leaped 7-3/4 cents to $3.30-1/2 a bushel.
In London, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended 52.2 points higher, or up 0.84 percent, at 6,302.2, driven higher by news of
merger talks in the steel sector and gains by drug stocks. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 average closed up 9.49 points, or 0.06
percent, at 16,417.99. |
