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

To: robert b furman who wrote (13741)	3/4/2004 11:21:17 PM
From: Return to Sender	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95646

From Briefing.com: Tech shares traded higher for a second session ahead of Intel's (INTC 29.65 +0.61) mid-quarter update. There were no decliners among the 18 company Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX 508.70), which jumped 1.63%. The Briefing.com Tech Index (BTI) rose 1.3%, with advancers leading decliners 2.3:1. Advancers gained 3.1% and decliners lost 2.4%. The broad strength in tech helped boost the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC 205511 +21.75) 1.07% but the buying interest did not extend to the S&P or the Dow to the same degree. The S&P (SPX 1154.87 +3.84) edged higher 0.33% and the Dow (DJI 10588.00 -5.11) finished almost flat at -0.05%. Among today's movers: Ask Jeeves (ASKJ 29.01 +8.30) soared 40.1% after announcing it would buy privately held search engine company Interactive Search Holdings for $343MM in cash and stock. Other directory services and search engine firms rose in sympathy: FindWhat.com (FWHT 20.23 +2.48) gained 14.0%; Switchboard (SWBD) rose 11.9%. palmOne (PLMO 12.70 +1.40) added 12.4% on an analyst upgrade. After the close, Intel (INTC 29.65 +0.61) updated Q1 revenue guidance to $8.0-8.2B (+18.5-21.5% Y/Y) and gross margin of 60% +/- 1 pt vs. prior guidance of $7.9-8.5B and 60% +/- a few pts. Outlook is consistent with management's view over the past few months that the recovery in IT spending will occur at a steady rate rather than as a surge in demand. We would continue to accumulate position over time. Please refer to the bottom of the Tech Stocks page for performance by sub-sector.--Ping Yu, Briefing.com 5:55PM Thursday After Hours prices levels vs. 4 pm ET: Intel's (INTC) move to narrow its Q1 (Mar) revenue guidance range to the low-end of estimates has knocked the market down in the after hours trade. Presently, the S&P futures, at 1154, are 1 point below fair value and the Nasdaq 100 futures, at 1476, are 6 points below fair value. Traders have reduced exposure to tech as many were banking on a nearly perfect update from Intel. The below table details Intel's outlook, as well as the other notable news items of the night. After Hours Mover % Change Move Reason for Move Boston Scientific (00C) +4% Medical device company announces that it has received final FDA approval for its Taxus drug-eluting stent; Company is ready to launch with over 225-250K units on hand; Management has said it hopes to end 2004 with 60% market share in the US versus rival Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Cypher); See a Story Stock dated Feb 25 for more details Intel (INTC) -2% World's largest chip maker narrows its Q1 (Mar) revenue guidance to $8.0-8.2 bln from $7.9-8.5 bln in its mid-quarter update; The Reuters Research consensus estimate stood at $8.27 bln, and thus this has inspired some profit-taking; Gross margins are unchanged at ~ 60%; Chip equipment makers AMAT, KLAC, and NVLS are also lower Mandalay Bay (MBG) +1% Casino operator beats by $0.04 in its Q4 (Jan) report on revenues that rose 11% to $604.1 mln; Noted that operating cash flow at the company's Las Vegas Strip properties (including the 50%-owned Monte Carlo) increased 25%; Stock has more than doubled in the past year Symbol Tech (SBL) -7% Provider of secure mobile information systems misses the Street EPS and revenue estimates in its Q4 (Dec) report and also guides Q1 (Mar) and FY04 in line; Stock had run up 9% over the past 5 days TiVo (TIVO) +6% Digital video recorder developer exceeds the Q4 (Jan) consensus bottom-line forecast by $0.06 and says it sees FY04 service and technology revenues of $100-115 mln versus the market expectation of $101.9 mln; Management also noted its subscription base grew to more than 1.3 mln Tomorrow, the February employment report will be released at 8:30 ET and should serve as a focal point for trading. Economists have the unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 5.6% and the nonfarm payrolls number increasing by 125K. For more perspective on this, visit Briefing.com's Economic Calendar. For more detail on these, and other developments, be sure to visit our Stock Market Update and Daily Sector Wrap. -- Heather Smith, Briefing.com 4:18PM Intel narrows revenue range below consensus, narrows gross margin range (INTC) 29.65 +0.61: -- Update -- Co narrows its Q1 rev guidance to $8.0-$8.2 bln, vs its previous range of $7.9-$8.5 bln and consensus of $8.27 bln. The gross margin percentage is expected to be 60%, plus or minus a point, vs previous expectation of 60%, plus or minus a couple of points. "Demand for the company's Intel Architecture products is consistent with the lower end of normal seasonal patterns and significantly higher than in the same period last year. Demand for Intel's communications products is in line with the company's expectations at the beginning of the quarter. All other expectations are unchanged." 4:06PM Silicon Images 'E' removed from trading symbol (SIMG) 10.88 +0.26: Cree Inc (CREE 21.91 -1.65): In contrast to Soundview's cautious comments on Cree (8:53), CIBC believes the mkt may be misinterpreting recent data points out of Taiwan; firm says recent news from Taiwanese LED suppliers indicates that Nichia has dropped its LED lamp prices in the past few months and that blue LED chip prices continue to drop 10-15% QoQ; however, firm believes that both of these issues are related to Cree's recent mkt share gains, and they continue to believe that an IP wall exists for Taiwanese suppliers and that Cree will continue to gain share. 3:12PM INTC Mid-Quarter Update Preview 29.57 +0.53: Intel is scheduled to hold its mid-qtr update after the close at 5:30 PM ET today. It seems the expectations regarding the co's guidance are relatively low, with a majority of analysts expecting the co to narrow its rev guidance of $7.9-$8.5 bln (down 3-10% QoQ) to $8.3 bln (consensus), instead of guiding up, and expecting the co to maintain gross margin guidance of 60% plus or minus few points. Over the past few weeks there have been concerns regarding excess laptop inventory resulting (which JP Morgan cited in their March 1 downgrade), yet BofA said the weakness in notebooks reflects a short-term inventory correction and they maintain a positive outlook on CY04 notebook growth. Prudential notes in their preview that both Dell and HP, which together account for over 30% of INTC's revs, saw notebook growth that was significantly higher than overall PC growth in their Jan qtrs. On a final note, Wedbush (who called the last INTC mid-qtr update spot-on in Dec) said this is a rare case when merely guiding to consensus of $8.3 bln in sales and $0.28 in EPS will rally the stock. 10:55AM ISIL aided by JMP Sec comments 24.38 +0.41: Stock stronger today following comment this morning by JMP Sec to to accumulate Intersil Corp (ISIL) on recent weakness, as firm believes that the stock is undervalued at 27x firm's CY04 EPS est of $0.90 and 20x CY05 earnings of $1.20, relative to a secular EPS growth rate of 25-30% per year. 10:15AM MCHP to shelve plans for China assembly plant - AmTech 28.23 +0.09: AmTech says they discovered an interesting quote from Microchip's (MCHP) CEO in a trade publication story, which reported that the co was shelving plans for a China assembly plant; while this is a chip assembly plant and not a fab, firm says it is still somewhat odd for the co to already think about curtailing plans for expansion -- especially for a co like Microchip that derives its higher gross margins from being a low-cost manufacturer; firm speculates that perhaps there is more to be read about the co's true outlook for their business based on such a decision, rather than any "color" associated with a mid-qtr investor presentation. Nvidia (NVDA 22.35 +0.48): Digitimes reported Nvidia is planning to push its sales by bundling its graphics cards with the online game, Doom 3, which is slated to be launched by id Software in April. id Software said earlier this week that it recommended the Nvidia GeForce FX series of graphics cards for the Doom 3. To emphasize the endorsement, a special sticker has been designed for GeForce FX packaging indicating that the product is "Recommended by id Software for Doom 3." According to the article, the Nvidia-id Software venture is expected to put the pressure on Nvidia's rival, ATI Technologies, who has reached an agreement with design house Valve to bundle its cards with the online game, Half Life 2. finance.yahoo.com