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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Seamus McKenna who wrote (90460)	3/22/2001 5:14:58 PM
From: tonyt	Respond to of 97611

Intel Chief Says Next 3 Months Not Bright LONDON (Reuters) - Craig Barrett, chief executive of top U.S. computer chip maker Intel Corp (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), said on Thursday that the company's outlook for next three months was not bright, while the U.S. markets had entered uncharted territory. ``We don't know how long this slowdown is going to last. It may last six months, 12 months or 18 months,'' Barrett told Britain's Channel Four television station in a report from San Francisco. ``As far as our visibility is today -- and that's only three months or so -- the picture doesn't look particularly bright,'' he said. Wall Street took another tumble on Thursday as the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 20 percent below its high. The Nasdaq Composite Index, the battered tech barometer, in bear territory for months, was faring a little better, nudging higher. ``I would be hopeful that we're near the bottom, and there's some degree of stability, but nothing surprises me in this market. Nobody's ever seen this before, it's uncharted territory,'' Barrett said. ``You know, I'm sure that (U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Alan) Greenspan doesn't know exactly what's going to happen. And I put as much faith in his opinion as anybody,'' he said. Greenspan and the U.S. Federal Reserve have cut U.S. interest rates three times so far this year, but the steps have failed to inspire investor confidence in the market. Counting The Cost Barrett said he was counting the cost of the recent plunge in Intel's shares, which traded at $28-11/16 at 2050 GMT, not far off this week's lowest level since November 1998 of $24-9/16, down from last August's peak of $75-13/16. ``It's rather painful. Actually, I've been considering starting the 200-Club, which is those CEOs who have lost over $200 billion of market cap,'' he said, adding that the group could include Microsoft Corp's (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) Steve Ballmer and Cisco Systems Inc's (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) John Chambers. ``It's not something to be particularly proud of. It's a shock if you're the CEO of a company. But I think it's a shock if you are an employee of the company. All my employees have stock options,'' he said. A key issue was whether the slowdown U.S. economy would spread to Europe and Asia, he said, adding that the outlook remained unclear. ``The dark side of this cloud has a synchronous recession in the four major economies -- Europe, U.S., Japan and Asia.'' But the Intel chief said his firm would continue to create more value through innovation. ``We'll still be driving more value in microelectronics, bring the consumer more memory, more capability, more capacity per unit dollar spent for at least another 15 or 20 years,'' he said.