Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11691)	9/18/2003 4:46:05 PM
From: Donald Wennerstrom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95530

Here is the commentary on the stock ticker close from Briefing.com <Close Dow +113.48 at 9659.13, Nasdaq +26.45 at 1909.55, S&P +13.61 at 1039.58: [BRIEFING.COM] The late-afternoon rally that has marked recent sessions came early - very early, at about 10 ET - and only gained steam as the day drew on... As a result, the Dow and S&P 500 set new 52-week highs, and the Nasdaq lifted to a 15-month high and closed above the psychologically-important 1,900 level... The Composite was, in fact, the best performing index - up 1.4% - and its leadership was particularly striking in the face of an August semiconductor equipment book-to-bill ratio that missed most Wall Street forecasts... As a result, the semi equipment group was the only tech sub sector to turn negative for the day... Internet, software, networking, and disk drive were among the standouts, along with a whole slew of industry groups from the broader market... Transportation, cyclicals, utility, homebuilding, and financial exhibited relative strength and led the charge higher... The latter group put up the largest gains thanks to a blow-out Q3 (Aug) report from Bear Stearns (BSC 76.27 +3.80)... Other factors other than strong industry leadership that laid the groundwork for the advance were the winning session in bonds - which helped push yields back to their mid-July levels and enhance the investment appeal of stocks in the process - and the quadruple witching options expiration that marks tomorrow's session... Economic data played a rather insignificant role in the trading action as most of it checked in mix... August Leading Indicators met the consensus estimate of 0.4%, while jobless claims for the week of September 13 dropped 29K to 399K (consensus of 410K)... The four-week moving average, however, rose to 411K from 409K... Finally, the Philadelphia Fed Index missed the consensus estimate of 17.0 (at 14.6), but a spike in the key new orders component to its highest level since November of 1999 suggested manufacturing remained NYSE Adv/Dec 2146/1072... Nasdaq Adv/Dec 1962/1217.> While the semi-equips might have been down for the day, the loss was minimal. The Group of 25 that I report on weekly was down 3+ points for the day or -0.71 percent. TER and NVLS, 2 of the 18 stocks in the SOX, were up 1.7 and 0.2 percent respectively while AMAT and KLAC were down 1.6 and 1.1 percent respectively.

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11691)	9/18/2003 5:06:43 PM
From: Ian@SI	Respond to of 95530

Don, Intuitively, I'd expect the more relevent measure to be the % unemployed. It seems to me that the economy is always going through cycles, some industries are disappearing or at least employing fewer people as increased productivity makes them more efficient; while other industries are being created and growing rapidly. The unemployed (and seeking a job) represent those that aren't in the right place geographically; don't have the desired skills; are hard core unemployable; etc. But I'm not an economist or otherwise expert in this area, so I'll avoid any further off topic conversations on this subject. Regards, Ian

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (11691)	9/19/2003 10:36:52 AM
From: Sam Citron	Respond to of 95530

OT [A]s population grows in a country, should the percent unemployment number go down? It would be very nice if it did, but population growth is not correlated with labor utilization rates. In fact at high rates of pop. growth, unemployment % tend to go up, not down, as the economy fails to create jobs fast enough to keep up with fertility. Unemployment statistics in general are quite suspect, as they do not include those who have dropped out of the work force due to long-term unemployment.