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To: Earlie who wrote (150500)	2/13/2002 5:49:20 AM
From: Bill/WA	Respond to of 436258

Earlie, re:AMAT This reminds me of that famous quote from the movie Hud, "What we have here is a lack of communication!" Chairman and CEO Jim Morgan described a weary chip-equipment market that is starting to see a few signs of health. Still, while (CFO)Bronson forecast improving chip demand, he said the company did not expect capital spending to rise in lockstep. He said that while manufacturing facility utilization is increasing, it is "still below levels that require capital investment." The company expects spending on semiconductor capital equipment to fall 25% in 2002 over 2001, with wafer fab outlays down 20%.

To: Earlie who wrote (150500)	2/15/2002 6:08:07 PM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 436258

here's another ... biz.yahoo.com Ought to have a thread for this -- like the layoffs

To: Earlie who wrote (150500)	2/17/2002 1:38:27 AM
From: Cactus Jack	Respond to of 436258

Earlie, Your IBM call was very timely: netscape5.marketwatch.com jpgill

To: Earlie who wrote (150500)	2/19/2002 1:18:55 AM
From: Cactus Jack	Respond to of 436258

Earlie, This sounds similar to some of the things you've suggested about IBM: businessweek.com << An even touchier issue is the assumption companies make on how much their pension portfolios will earn. GE decided in November to trim its rate to 8.5% from 9.5%. Sounds small, but that cut could cost GE more than $550 million, a hit of 2% to pretax income. Dow Chemical Co. says it cut its assumed rate of return to 9.25% from 9.5% last year, helping knock $100 million off its pretax results in 2002, vs. a $45 million boost in 2000. Whirlpool Corp. (WHR ) said in a Feb. 5 conference call that it had cut its rate to 10% for 2002 from 10.5% last year. If the 50 biggest companies with pension plans all sliced one percentage point from their projections, their collective pretax income would fall $5.2 billion, according to consultants Milliman. Why are companies fessing up to poor pension results only now? After all, the bear market started 23 months ago. The reason is that accounting rules let companies delay reporting big changes in pension earnings for several years. But with plans losing value in 2001, many companies decided it was safer to come clean about the widening gap between pension projections and reality. The pension rules are a chief financial officer's dream--and an investor's nightmare. Each year, executives project a long-term rate of return for plan investments. The higher the rate, the cheaper the cost of providing the plan. In fact, if pension earnings exceed costs, the CFO can add the surplus to the bottom line. In 2000, about a third of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index did so, boosting pretax income 12% on average, says Jane B. Adams, accounting analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston.>> jpgill