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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (165355)	5/15/2001 11:00:33 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176388

Hewlett-Packard, Dell May Forecast PC Sales' Rebound Austin, Texas, May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Hewlett-Packard Co.'s and Dell Computer Corp.'s quarterly earnings reports this week may provide insight into when personal-computer sales will rebound from a six-month slump, analysts said. Hewlett-Packard will post second-quarter earnings tomorrow, and Dell will follow Thursday with its first-quarter earnings report. Both companies gave forecasts during the quarter, which ended weeks ago. Instead of focusing on those results, analysts and investors will be looking for clues about what lies ahead. ``We expect (Dell) to say things are still pretty tough,'' said James Poyner, an analyst at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin. ``More interesting will be how much they guide down the next quarter. I don't expect the outlook to be particularly cheery right now.'' PC sales declined to 32.5 million units in the first quarter from 37.9 million units in the fourth quarter, market researcher Gartner Dataquest said, as the U.S. economy cooled. Demand may not rebound until later this year or next, analysts and executives have said. Microsoft Corp. last week said its new Windows XP operating system, which is expected to encourage consumers to buy new PCs, will go on sale Oct. 25, missing back-to-school sales. Last week, Dell founder Michael Dell said he didn't expect a recovery until next year, when the appeal of the new software will be bolstered by lower prices for machines equipped with Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 processor. ``The second quarter of 2002 is the intersection of such things as Windows XP, Pentium 4 machines reaching a $1,000 price point and Office XP,'' Dell said. ``We think all of those things will create a pretty powerful replacement cycle.''