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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (2907)	4/25/2002 6:16:06 PM
From: Return to Sender	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95456

Weaker demand for circuit boards in March - survey biz.yahoo.com LOS ANGELES, April 25 (Reuters) - The book-to-bill ratio for printed circuit boards fell in March, its second straight monthly drop and a sign of weaker demand for the electronics manufacturing industry, trade data released on Thursday showed. The book-to-bill ratio, which is watched as an indicator of sales and product demand in the electronics manufacturing industry, fell to 0.98 in March from 1.00 in February and 1.01 in January, according to figures released Thursday by the Northbrook, Illinois-based trade association IPC. The ratio is derived by taking the three-month industry average of orders booked and dividing by the three-month average of sales billed. An even 1.00 number means that new orders equaled shipments of existing orders in the month. The IPC's shipment index for February was 151.6, up 12.6 percent from February, while the booking index of new orders was 147.0, up 21.5 percent from February, where results from 1992 serve as a base of 100. Printed wiring boards are components in electronic devices, such as computers. Contract manufacturing companies are among the major manufacturers of the products and use them in equipment that is assembled for name-brand electronics companies. Sales billed in February were down 33.6 percent compared with March 2001, while orders booked were down 14.8 percent over the same period. The year-over-year percentage drop in orders booked was much smaller than in past months, where that drop has sometimes exceeded 40 percent. Year-to-date, booking are down 28.2 percent over 2001, while shipments are down 39.3 percent. The ratio hit a bottom of 0.63 in April. It recovered for four straight months before falling in September and October, and then beginning its recovery through January. Printed wiring board production was a $42.7 billion business globally in 2000, according to IPC, with Japan and the United States the largest markets. IPC said 60 percent of the companies involved in the printed wiring board market in the United States take part in their survey. A number of major contract manufacturers, including Sanmina-SCI Corp. (NasdaqNM:SANM - news) and Flextronics International Ltd. (NasdaqNM:FLEX - news) make bare wiring boards for in-house and customer use. Sanmina-SCI recently noted a quarter-over-quarter improvement in its wiring board business, while Flextronics has said it does not expect that part of its business to be profitable until its fiscal 2003 second quarter, ending in September.

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (2907)	4/25/2002 8:16:29 PM
From: Donald Wennerstrom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95456

For reference, the table below is an update of First Call earnings estimates for the Group. DATA FROM FIRST CALL 4/04/02 4/25/02 EARNINGS EST EARNINGS EST EARNINGS CHG SYMBOL CURR YR NEXT YR CURR YR NEXT YR CURR YR NEXT YR AMAT 0.14 0.66 0.14 0.66 0.00 0.00 ASML -0.11 0.69 -0.09 0.70 0.02 0.01 ASYT -1.39 -0.64 -1.39 -0.62 0.00 0.02 ATMI -0.14 0.86 0.00 0.96 0.14 0.10 BRKS -0.93 0.80 -0.92 0.80 0.01 0.00 CMOS -1.20 -0.11 -1.21 -0.06 -0.01 0.05 COHU 0.26 0.92 0.26 0.92 0.00 0.00 CYMI 0.26 1.20 0.68 1.72 0.42 0.52 DPMI -0.11 1.46 -0.15 1.25 -0.04 -0.21 EGLS -2.21 -1.16 -2.21 -1.16 0.00 0.00 FSII -1.09 0.10 -1.08 0.10 0.01 0.00 HELX -0.28 0.54 -0.31 0.52 -0.03 -0.02 KLAC 1.01 1.31 1.06 1.42 0.05 0.11 KLIC -0.83 0.40 -0.95 0.60 -0.12 0.20 LRCX -0.05 0.29 0.04 0.48 0.09 0.19 LTXX -0.91 -0.13 -0.91 -0.13 0.00 0.00 MTSN -1.56 -0.10 -1.56 -0.10 0.00 0.00 NANO -0.27 0.41 -0.23 0.45 0.04 0.04 NVLS 0.10 1.21 0.46 1.50 0.36 0.29 PHTN -0.07 1.26 -0.09 1.32 -0.02 0.06 PLAB 0.60 1.41 0.60 1.42 0.00 0.01 PRIA -0.74 0.41 -0.73 0.41 0.01 0.00 SFAM -1.51 -0.65 -1.51 -0.65 0.00 0.00 SMTL -0.45 0.16 -0.45 0.16 0.00 0.00 TER -1.12 0.31 -0.96 0.57 0.16 0.26 TGAL -0.41 0.41 UTEK -0.03 0.67 -0.04 0.59 -0.01 -0.08 VECO 0.16 0.98 0.17 1.02 0.01 0.04 WFR -2.75 -1.90 -1.90 0.85 1.90 TOTAL -15.63 11.36 -13.28 14.85 2.35 3.49