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

To: FJB who wrote (19248)	6/5/2006 2:12:49 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25522

52% is a meaningless number without knowing the rest of the series. i.e. - How much was February and March ABOVE trend and how much was April BELOW trend? Is the average for the 3 months close to the trend? And given that the third month of the Q is usually higher than the other 2, the dip in April from March would be substantially overstated. Strikes me as a reporter without any analytical skill whatsoever trying to make his dull story a little more interesting. and it worked. He got us to talk about it. <<<<“After Intel stuffed the channels with chips in February and March, the floor fell out in April, and [PC processor] sales dropped 52 percent year-on-year,” <<Combined AMD/Intel sales are down 52% from last year. I would not be surprised if they are down, but 52% would be quite the drop. We should hear soon. I am curious if this guy was in Amsterdam when he wrote the report.

To: FJB who wrote (19248)	6/5/2006 2:29:20 PM
From: etchmeister	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

I am curious if this guy was in Amsterdam when he wrote the report. No Kidding - Im also puzzled as it does not seem to jive with SIA To: Brian who wrote (19230) 6/2/2006 8:35:12 PM From: etchmeister Read Replies (3) of 19250 Some markets are stronger than others, however. “PC processor chip sales fell 52 percent year-over-year in April, so we expect another profit warning from Intel,” said Bruce Diesen, an analyst with Handelsbanken Capital Markets, in a report. I'm kind of lost about the 52% - that's what SIA stated: "More intense competition led to a sequential decline of 6.1 percent in sales of microprocessors, offsetting modest growth in the rest of the microchip market," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement. Sales of microprocessors, which make up 14 percent of the overall chip market, were up nominally year-to-year, Scalise said. April DRAM sales were up 3.7 percent sequentially and 7.7 percent year to year, he said. "The PC market remains strong, with unit sales of personal computers running 13 to 15 percent ahead of last year's levels," Scalise said. Cutting through all this analyst talk just check this chart and decide for your own - “[We are] reducing our 2006 forecast from 11 percent to 10 percent, driven by weaker April shipments, with a muted cyclical peak still expected in mid-to-late 2006,” said Craig Berger, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, in the report." I suppose we get one of those muted cyclical peaks once a year us.f13.yahoofs.com.

To: FJB who wrote (19248)	6/5/2006 3:16:41 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Fed Chairman Still Worried About Inflation; Citizens worried about Fed Chairman....... Fed Chairman Still Worried About Inflation Yahoo ^ \| 06/05/06 \| Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even though the once barreling U.S. economy is now slowing down, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday called recent increases in inflation unwelcome and pledged to make sure surging energy prices don't make things worse. In deciding the Federal Reserve's next rate move in late June, Bernanke said the inflation outlook "will receive particular scrutiny." Fed policy-makers "will be vigilant" to ensure that the recent pattern of higher readings in core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, "is not sustained," he said in remarks prepared for an international monetary conference here. Bernanke offered his most extensive assessment of current economic conditions and the challenges facing Fed policy-makers. "With the economy now evidently in a period of transition, monetary policy must be conducted with great care and with close attention to the evolution of the economic outlook," Bernanke said. He stressed anew that future rate decisions will rely heavily on what economic barometers say about inflation and business activity. So far this year, inflation at the consumer level has been elevated in large part by rising energy prices, Bernanke said. As measured by the Consumer Price Index, "core" inflation -- which excludes food and energy prices -- rose at an annual rate of 3.2 percent over the last three months and 2.8 percent over the pat six months. "These are unwelcome developments," he said. Fed policy-makers pay close attention to "core" inflation figures to get a better sense of how prices of lots of other goods and services are behaving. As these core measures have marched higher, economists have worried that surging energy prices are feeding into higher price tags for more and more items. To combat inflation, Fed policy-makers have boosted interest rates 16 times since June 2004. The Fed, which meets next on 28-29, has said that coming rate decisions will rely heavily on how barometers on economic activity and inflation look. Some economists believe the Fed will raise rates again at that time to blunt inflation. Others, however, think the Fed will leave rates alone, taking a pause in its two-year rate-raising campaign to assess economic conditions. The economy, which grew at a brisk 5.3 percent pace in the opening quarter of this year, is slowing to a more moderate pace, Bernanke said. Higher energy prices are playing a role by making some consumers more cautious in their spending. Another factor is a cooling housing market, he said. "The anticipated moderation of economic growth seems now to be under way," he declared. Private economists believe economic growth in the April-to-June quarter will probably clock in around a 2.5 percent pace or slightly better. Although consumers, who account for two-thirds of all economic activity, are showing signs of moderating their buying appetite, businesses on the other hand are spending and investing at a robust clip, Bernanke noted. He also pointed out that the slower job creation seen in recent months and an edging up in filings for unemployment benefits also are "consistent with the softening pace of overall economic activity that seems to be under way." Employers added just 75,000 jobs in May, the fewest in seven months. Job gains for March and April turned out to be lower than previously thought.