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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ScotMcI who wrote (25653)	1/24/2002 8:35:11 AM
From: ScotMcI	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25960

Optimistic Earnings Reports Lift Chip Makers Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 23 — Earnings reports from chip makers over the last two days have bolstered hopes for a recovery and pushed an index of semiconductor stocks 4.3 percent higher. While dreary compared with the fourth quarter of 2000, the reports from several smaller manufacturers of chips and chip-making equipment nonetheless generally met or beat Wall Street's expectations. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange's semiconductor index gained 21.41 today, to 520.54, on announcements from Novellus and others. LSI Logic (news/quote), which makes customized microchips for communications networks, typified the mix of good and bad news. After markets closed today, the company said fourth-quarter sales fell by nearly half from a year earlier, to $406 million, and it reported a loss of $74 million, or 20 cents a share. But the loss was 4 cents a share narrower than analysts had expected, and the company predicted increased sales of as much as 3 percent this quarter and a return to profit in the second half of the year. STMicroelectronics (news/quote), the European chip maker, reported Tuesday that earnings and sales matched analysts' estimates. Despite a prediction that its slump would continue into this quarter, its shares rose 4.2 percent, to $30.76, today. Fairchild Semiconductor (news/quote) reported a 31 percent year-over-year decline in sales Tuesday, but posted an unexpected profit and said bookings improved in its communications, computing, displays and industrial businesses. The book-to-bill ratio was above 1, a sign of a growing market, for the second consecutive quarter. "We continue to believe that we saw the low point for our trade sales in the third quarter and that we are moving through the early stages of a market recovery," said Kirk Pond, the president and chief executive. Manufacturers of chip-making equipment led the rally after a trade group said late Tuesday that the industry's sales in December rose from the previous month for the first time in a year. The group, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International, said the industry reported December sales of $834.9 million and new orders of $652.4 million, for a book-to-bill ratio of 0.78. The ratio improved from 0.73 in November. Novellus, an equipment maker, reported fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday that declined 81 percent and said it would report a wider-than- expected loss for the current quarter. But in an example of investor optimism, its shares rose $3.42, or 9 percent, today to close at $39.65.