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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kirk © who wrote (7085)	9/8/2003 10:29:17 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Chip, computer stocks break away By Chris Kraeuter, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 9:58 AM ET Sept. 8, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Chip and hardware stocks rose on Monday following positive commentary from several investment bank analysts. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX: news, chart, profile) and the Goldman Sachs Hardware Index ($GHA: news, chart, profile) rose 1.1 percent. Smith Barney analyst Glen Yeung boosted his growth outlook for the chip-equipment industry for 2004 and 2005 to 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively, from 16 and 26 percent. He also raised his financial estimates, price targets and ratings on Applied Materials (AMAT: news, chart, profile), Novellus (NVLS: news, chart, profile), Axcelis (ACLS: news, chart, profile), Lam Research (LRCX: news, chart, profile), ATMI (ATMI: news, chart, profile), Credence Systems (CMOS: news, chart, profile), Entegris (ENTG: news, chart, profile) and Mykrolis (MYK: news, chart, profile). "While we recognize investor sensitivity to currently high valuations, our upgrade is meant to convey our new belief that industry fundamentals will grow sufficiently steeply and to a sufficient level to justify our revised 12-month price targets," Yeung told clients on Monday. Still focused on the remainder of this year, Banc of America Securities analyst Joel Wagonfeld said IT spending improvements will likely lag any economic strength by a few quarters. Another analyst, Mark Lipacis with Prudential Equity, said the next 12 to 18 months should bring better visibility, utilization and pricing for semiconductor manufacturers. "We believe that the semiconductor group is still in the early stages of an up cycle, based on low levels of capital investment and low supply chain inventories." The most notable gainers during early trading included STMicroelectronics (STM: news, chart, profile), Teradyne (TER: news, chart, profile), Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM: news, chart, profile), Texas Instruments (TSN: news, chart, profile), AMD (AMD: news, chart, profile), EMC (EMC: news, chart, profile), and Gateway (GTW: news, chart, profile).