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

To: StanX Long who wrote (9528)	4/21/2003 3:33:46 AM
From: StanX Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95501

Dollar Up on Wall St. Hopes, Euro Firms story.news.yahoo.com TOKYO (Reuters) - The yen came under pressure against the dollar on Monday as dealers turned optimistic about the outlook for Wall Street and the Japanese currency was also sold against the euro as local investors bought foreign bonds. The dollar rose above the closely watched 120 yen level for the first time since Wednesday as Japanese institutional investors bought the greenback, encouraged by recent moves in U.S. stocks. "The dollar is firmer due to expectations that U.S. stocks will carry over the better trend from last week after a generally good outcome on U.S. earnings," said Kosuke Hanao, head of foreign exchange sales at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). As of 0538 GMT, the dollar was quoted at 119.97/02 yen from 119.56/64 yen in late, holiday-thinned U.S. trade on Friday. It had firmed to 120.07 yen earlier in the day. Dealers took their cue during Asian trading hours from U.S. stock index futures which suggested that U.S. share prices would build on their pre-Easter holiday rally. The Dow Jones Industrial average June futures contract added 20 points to 8,330 as of 0527 GMT and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures were up 3.60 points at 894.80. But the dollar struggled to push far above the 120 yen level because of exporters' selling orders, with operators remaining unsure about the outlook for the U.S. economy after the Iraq (news - web sites) war. "The dollar's topside is heavy because players cannot hold an optimistic view that U.S. corporate earnings will recover steadily," said a dealer at a major Japanese bank. YEN CROSS RATES The euro firmed as Japanese pension funds opted for foreign currency bonds since yields on Japanese government bonds offer a pittance. The euro stood at 130.63/74 yen against 130.29 yen in New York on Friday. The single currency briefly hit 130.77 yen in afternoon trade, only a hair away from a four-year high of 130.78 hit on Thursday. "As the Iraq war is coming to an end, currency flows are driven more by interest rate differentials," said the Japanese bank dealer. Against the dollar, the single currency rose to $1.0890/95 from $1.0871/77. But trading in euro/dollar was subdued and most action was seen in dollar/yen and yen cross rates. The Australian dollar was trading at levels not seen since August 1999 against the yen as pension funds invested in higher-yielding Australian bonds. The Aussie was quoted at 73.85/95 yen against Friday's New York close of 73.51/61 yen. CAUTION OVER DOLLAR Although the U.S. dollar was well supported, many Tokyo traders were unconvinced that the rally would continue. And the greenback's rise may have been exaggerated by the thin market as the Easter holiday continues in some countries. U.S. financial markets will resume trading later on Monday but other centers, including London, reopen on Tuesday. "We are seeing lots of bullish dollar factors, but I'm getting the impression that the dollar's topside is very much weighed down," said Hanao at RBS. But the dollar could be supported by caution over possible Japanese yen-selling intervention, dealers say. Japan's top financial diplomat, Zembei Mizoguchi, said that currencies had been relatively stable over the past few weeks. "There have not been any major moves over the past few weeks," Mizoguchi told reporters, when asked about comments by Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Friday that the yen was a bit strong against major currencies. "It's been overall stable," he said.

To: StanX Long who wrote (9528)	4/21/2003 9:31:21 AM
From: Return to Sender	Respond to of 95501

From Briefing.com: 8:33AM SEMI Book-to-Bill : The SEMI book-to-bill was released after the close Thursday. N. American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $823 mln in orders in March 2003 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.99. The figure came in slightly below the 1.02 consensus estimate. CSFB believes that the March numbers point to some stability in orders near term. 8:29AM Nokia upgraded at WR Hambrecht (NOK) 16.18: WR Hambrecht upgrades to Buy from Hold following solid Q1 results; firm also cites the following factors: 1) expectations for continued robust handset growth in NOK's sweet spot European mkt, 2) expectations for a steady increase in CDMA mkt share in 2003-04, 3) expectations for solid sequential and YoY growth in handset shipments for the rest of 2003, and 4) their belief that NOK has stemmed the bleeding at its networks biz. Raises price target to $20 from $14. 7:33AM Oracle questioned as "growth stock" in WSJ article (ORCL) 12.00: The Wall Street Journal reports in its "Heard on the Street" column the frustration analysts and investors have been experiencing given its recent decline in new software sales and the CEO placing an emphasis on software maintenance fees. The article states some analysts might have inferred the CEO's comments as promoting his company as a utility, which have limited growth, pay dividends and would be deserving of "boring" multiples. A Fulcrum analyst interviewed in the article rejects the CEO's notion that the co is still a "growth stock" given its lack of growth over the past two years (with the exception of one quarter), which have actually seen a decline in new license, or software, sales, as well as total revenue and earnings. In addition, a First Albany analyst believes the co should be trading at 15x to 20x forward earnings as opposed to its current 28. 7:00AM DSP Group beats by $0.04 (DSPG) 19.69: Reports Q1 net of $0.15 a share, $0.04 better than the Multex consensus, vs yr-ago EPS of $0.10. Revs rose 37% to $29 mln (consensus $27.84 mln). "We are very pleased with our first quarter 2003 results as we continued to grow our top line while maintaining a high profitability level. We also have good visibility into the second quarter of 2003." finance.yahoo.com^SOXX+ALTR+AMAT+AMD+BRCM+DSPG+INTC+KLAC+LLTC+LSCC+LSI+MOT+MU+MXIM+NOK+NSM+NVLS+ORCL+TER+TXN+XLNX+^IXIC+^NDX+^SPX+^VIX+^VXN+^STI.N+^STI.O+SMH&d=t RtS