Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (49202)	9/13/2000 12:42:43 PM
From: Charles Tutt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

... and yet another: zdii.com

To: Charles Tutt who wrote (49202)	9/13/2000 12:43:04 PM
From: johnd	Respond to of 74651

Charles, take a look at this: ==== Signs are pointing to a positive fall season for the PC sector, says Jim Gribbell, portfolio manager for The Babson Growth Fund in Boston. Although the stocks did well in August, the month was a relatively weak one for hardware sales, particularly since there were tough year-over-year comparisons with August 1999. But Gribbell says Babson's technology team has polled major retailers and while the back-to-school season got a slow start, in the last two weeks, ``things have been flying off the shelves. Now we think PC unit growth will accelerate in the second half of the year.'' Part of that acceleration is due to the slow growth in the first half, when sales were stunted because of the corporate IT spending lockdown that lingered in the wake of the Y2K rollover. Now that the Y2K has come and gone and the world is still standing, corporate clients are ready to resume buying PCs in large numbers. The weak corporate IT spending in the first half of 2000 could also give PC makers easy year-over-year comparisons when they get into the first half of 2001. Gribbell also says the coming holiday season should be at least as strong as in years past. Beyond that, he's also bullish about the prospects for PC makers improving their margins thanks to an expected glut of semiconductors. New semiconductor plants are expected to add to the industry capacity by mid-2001. While that could cause pricing pressure in the chip industry and pose a problem for the earnings outlook of the major chip companies, it should be good news for the hardware makers who will benefit from lower component costs. Demand could also be driven by the new technology that is coming on line, says Arthur Bonnel, portfolio manager for U.S. Global Investors' Bonnel Growth Fund in San Antonio, Texas. First, demand should pick up for Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) Windows 2000 in both the business and consumer markets. Then, Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC - news) latest version of the Pentium should also work its way through the sales channel. For nearly 20 years, each phase of growth in the PC industry has been sparked by adoption of each successive generation of chip and software technology.