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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StanX Long who wrote (2485)	3/28/2002 5:17:40 PM
From: Return to Sender	Respond to of 95663

From Briefing.com: 2:20PM NVIDIA Corp bounces (NVDA) 44.00 -1.50: -- Update -- Stock experiencing intraday pop. Traders attributing reversal to Bloomberg headline that company is maintaining its sales forecasts. 2:12PM Cisco Systems Intraday (CSCO) 16.95 +0.61: -- Technical -- Leader in the networking sector has tacked on strong gains but is still hovering below an important ceiling at 17.1/17.2 (50 day ema/sma, two week range top). If taken out, the next resistance ofinterest is at 17.6 (200 day sma) which capped the March advance followed by the recovery high at 17.93. 1:06PM NVIDIA Corp experiences collateral damage (NVDA) 42.55 -2.95: -- Update -- Investors scouring the markets for an explanation behind NVDA's price decline. Besides the obvious technical deterioration that has contributed to stock breaking down to a four month low, the stock is also being pressured by a Salomon Smith Barney Asia-Pacific pre-market note on TSMC that mentions NVDA. According to firm, the Commercial Times and digiTimes reported an interview with NVDA's Asia Pacific marketing director, in which he predicted a sequential decline in Q2 sales due to seasonal factors. NVDA was mentioned in the note because it is TSMC's number one customer. Although the Salomon report characterized the news as "negative," we are not certain whether or not Wall Street had already factored in a sequential decline in this region. Salomon Smith Barney does not cover NVDA. 12:15AM Lucent Tech upped at FBR (LU) 4.57 +0.23: -- Update -- Friedman Billings Ramsey upgrades to BUY from Accumulate based on valuation and the belief that another warning is unlikely; firm says that customer checks and competitor crosschecks found no red flags indicating future revenue shortfalls, channel stuffing, or inventory issues. Price target is $7. 11:05AM Sector Watch: Telecom/Networking : Telecom equipment/networking sector has been strong since opening bell, led by LU (+5%), NT (+5%) RSTN (+5.3%). Positive sector tone has helped rescue JNPR (+3%) from early weakness resulting from its earnings warning. Down the food chain, seeing favorable action in GLW (+2.9%), PMCS (+3.7%), BRCM (+2.9%), AMCC (+2.4%), AGR.A (+4%), AVNX (+3.3%), NUFO (+2.7%). 10:36AM Cypress Semi lists synthetic leases on 10-K (CY) 23.15 +0.54: Dow Jones is reporting that CY's 10-K lists several synthetic leases which were not described as such on previous filings; the co said that if it had purchased all the properties subject to synthetic leases as of Dec 30, it would have cost it $76.3 mln, according to the filing. The co also said that it wasn't in compliance with the financial covenants of one of its synthetic leases at Dec 30, 2001, but had obtained a waiver for this default and renegotiated the covenants. 9:44AM QLT falls on reimbursement concerns voiced by DBAB (QLTI) 16.86 -1.31: Issue comes under pressure in early trading. Weighing on stock is DB Alex. Brown pre-market note lowering its price target to $15 from $20. Firm believes that tomorrow the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will announce that there will be no national reimbursement coverage for occult age-related mascular degeneration. Firm removing occult AMD sales from model, leading DBAB to slash estimates; 2003 cut to $0.33 from $0.50, 2004 to $0.36 from $0.65, 2005 to $0.40 from $0.75, and 2006 to $0.62 from $0.80. 8:44AM Applied Materials seen as TSM beneficiary (AMAT) 51.97: Hearing from sources that SoundView sees AMAT as having particularly high leverage to TSM and should therefore benefit from the increased capex guidance (see 8:39 comment); AMAT is trading up 1 pt pre-market and the news is lifting other semi equipment names as well; NVLS +0.90, KLAC +0.90. 8:39AM Solectron and Lucent enter optical supply pact (SLR) 7.00: Enters agreement to purchase optical manufacturing equipment and inventory at Lucent's (LU) N. Andover plant. Lucent also signed a 3-yr supply agreement for optical line systems with Solectron, making Solectron the primary manufacturer for Lucent's advanced optical systems. Deal has a potential value of $2 bln. 8:39AM Taiwan Semi ups capex to $2.6B from $1.65B (TSM) 19.84: Taiwan Semi officially increased its 2002 capital spending plan to $2.5-2.6 bln from $2.2 bln in 2001 and previous guidance of $1.6-1.7 bln. That TSM increased capex guidance is no surprise; Merrill upgraded the stock yesterday prior to this increase and Bear Stearns had speculated almost two weeks ago that both TSM and UMC would up capex plans. The magnitude of the increase was a bit better than expected, however, as Bear had expected the increases to lift its Asia ex-Japan capex estimate to +9% for 2002, but has now gone to +14% on the TSM news, according to the firm's Ripple Effect. Morgan Stanley's Edelstone on semis : Morgan Stanley semiconductor analyst Mark Edelstone was out this morning in defense of the sector after a negative note on chips from Morgan Stanley's Asia analysts yesterday; Edelstone did not change any ratings or estimates, but said his favorite names in the group were Nvidia (NVDA 44.36 -1.14), Intel (INTC 30.41 unch), and Silicon Labs (SLAB 35.33 +2.33). Centillium Comms (CTLM) 12.10 +0.60: Thomas Weisel Partners upgraded to ATTRACTIVE from Mkt Perform; said inventories are shrinking as DSL demand surges, with China and Lucent (LU) adding to revenue potential in the second half of 2002; upped FY02 EPS estimate to ($0.98) from ($1.29) and FY03 to ($0.55) from ($0.84). PDF Solutions (PDFS) 17.15 +0.33: Taken public 7/27/01, PDFS has fared better than other IPOs; shares have held steady thanks to strong earnings reports and positive analyst recommendations. CSFB gave the stock another reason to move up today; firm believes PDFS is executing well to their Q1 ests of $11 mln and $0.05 and sees additional upside to both the top and bottom line. CSFB also believes the co. has signed a contract with a top 3 fabless chip co. with PDFS' DesignBased Yield Improvement product; also emphasized PDFS is progressing well in its efforts to penetrate the fabless segment and in new opportunities with AMAT. ST Assembly (STTS) 16.90 +0.75: Salomon Smth Brny upgraded to OUTPERFORM from Neutral. Firm noted that positive signals across the supply chain point to solid upturn in Q2; STTS has high operating leverage on comm IC demand recovery; positive potential catalysts include strong earnings recovery momentum and potential M&A. Veeco Instruments (VECO) 35.00 +4.50: Stock up 15% after Merrill Lynch upgraded to near-term STRONG BUY from Buy based on improving fundamentals and attractive valuation. While firm maintaining current estimates, believes they will prove conservative once VECO reports MarQ results. Firm has a price target of $45. finance.yahoo.com^SOXX+^IXIC&d=t RtS