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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11592)	9/12/2003 6:45:58 PM
From: Donald Wennerstrom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95598

Nere is the "Tech Stock Analysis" update for today from Briefing.com Well, Oracle's (ORCL 12.55 -0.43) fiscal Q1 (Aug) report was sure to set the tone for the technology sector on Friday and it did just that... for about the first 4 1/2 hours of trading. The final two hours, which we'll get to momentarily, were an entirely different story. By most accounts, Oracle's report was a disappointment. Although the company matched the consensus EPS estimate of $0.08 per share, its sales performance failed to live up to the market's expectations, not to mention its own forecast. As a reminder, Oracle said in June that it expected total revenues to grow 4-7% and new software licenses to be up 2-12%. When it was all said and done, total revenues were up only 2.1% to $2.07 bln while new software licenses fell 6.8% to $525 mln. From a broader standpoint, Oracle's struggles suggested that perhaps information technology spending isn't picking up as strongly as the market has been hoping. That consideration prompted some widespread selling activity in the technology sector when trading began, but in due time, traders re-grouped and appeared to be more comfortable with the supposition that Oracle's issue are largely company-specific. While the truth will come out in subsequent reports from other technology companies, the participants on Friday managed to put Oracle's disappointment aside and took advantage of the early weakness as a buying opportunity. In doing so, they rallied the market back successfully and helped the indices end the week on a winning note. Microsoft (MSFT 28.34 +0.50), which doubled its annual dividend to $0.16 per share, and Qualcomm (QCOM 42.82 +1.82), which was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch, were leadership stocks for the Nasdaq and the broader market. It should be noted that the volume at the NYSE (1.25 bln) and Nasdaq (1.71 bln) didn't exactly support the view that there was a great deal of conviction behind Friday's move, but nonetheless, bulls scored a moral victory with the comeback effort. That point notwithstanding, we continue to urge readers to lighten positions in the technology sector or, at the very least, to consider ways to protect their profits.-- Patrick J. O'Hare, Briefing.com>