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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35317)	5/23/2000 10:15:00 AM
From: Terry D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Brian - Robert Maire from Bear agrees with you, but I have read many "street was disappointed" stories." Here's Robert - The semiconductor equipment book to bill came in at 1.42, better than our expectations, and street expectations. This was down from a revised 1.46 in March reflecting a slightly healthier shipment level. The front end book to bill ratio followed the overall trend and was 1.38. The back end was up very modestly at 1.51 from 1.50. We think the street reaction to the book to bill number should be positive as we were expecting more of a decline in the numbers. Orders continued to grow, up a healthy 10% sequentially to $2.7B. Shipments improved and were up 11% to $1.9B. The fact that shipment rates have improved gives us some comfort that the industry is ramping shipments successfully. The fact that the book to bill ratio did not drop off as sharply it could have suggests that we are just seeing a maturing of the cycle and that shipments are catching up to orders as compared to weakness in the order flow. Stocks have been under pressure over the last week and this should help ease some fears of a rapid deceleration.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (35317)	5/23/2000 4:02:00 PM
From: Terry D	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

The Teradyne "guidance" is the problem - of course - but they are on the tape saying they are on target - so for the first time since Oct 97 I am buying AMAT on this frenzy at the close. Because I am stupid? Well, yes. t d (Reporting from a hardened bunker.)