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To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (43182)	2/2/2009 10:40:58 PM
From: Return to Sender	2 Recommendations Respond to of 95632

From Briefing.com: 4:25 pm : Market-moving news was lacking this session. In turn, stocks traded with little direction and finished with mixed results. All three major indices fell to losses in excess of 1% in the early going. Only the Nasdaq was able to finish with a gain, thanks to help from large-cap tech stocks. Microsoft (MSFT 17.83, +0.73) was a primary leader in its space. It staged its largest single-session advance in more than one week, enabling it to reclaim losses in the prior two sessions. Large-cap industrial stocks sent the the Dow to new lows for 2009. The Dow is up 6.5% from its bear market low, though. General Electric (GE 11.62, -0.51) was a primary laggard in the Dow and the industrial sector (-2.5%), which was the worst performing sector in the S&P 500. Shares of GE actually registered a 13-year low amid ongoing concerns regarding the health of the company's capital arm. GE remains one of the only companies to boast a AAA credit rating, though. Financial stocks, which have led the market in recent weeks, managed to finish a volatile session with a 0.2% gain. Financials were down as much as 3.5%. Investors continue awaiting further details regarding a government-led plan to help restore the nation's financial system. Though there is doubt that any such plan will spur an immediate recovery, investors are anxious to make progress. According to The Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Geithner indicated he will lay out plans for the financial crisis in his speech next week. With the health of the financial system and the broader economy still uncertain, companies continue to issue warnings and make cuts where necessary. Macy's (M 8.59, -0.36) projects lower earnings for fiscal 2009 and is cutting dividend to $0.05 per share from $0.1325 per share. Macy's also plans to eliminate some 7,000 jobs. Shares of M dragged retailers 0.3% lower this session. Earnings news was light this morning. Humana (HUM 40.13, +2.20) was one of the few widely-held companies to report; it announced lower fourth quarter earnings, strong revenue growth, and reaffirmed its full-year outlook. Humana's report was largely in-line with expectations. There was some economic data released this morning, but it came with little surprise. Hard pressed by ongoing headwinds, personal spending in December was down 1%, while personal income decreased 0.2%. The personal spending data was largely reflected already in last week's advance fourth quarter GDP report. Meanwhile, January ISM Manufacturing came in a better-than-expected 35.6. The consensus called for a reading of just 32.5. Still, the data reflect continued contraction in manufacturing. Construction spending in December fell 1.4%, which is a bit steeper than the 1.2% decline that was widely expected. The drop in December indicates an accelerated decline from the 1.2% decline registered in the prior month. DJ30 -64.11 NASDAQ +18.01 SP500 -0.45 NASDAQ Dec/Adv/Vol 1248/1451/2.02 bln NYSE Dec/Adv/Vol 1656/1378/1.33 bln 4:08PM Tessera Tech beats by $0.04, beats on revs; guides Q1 revs below consensus (TSRA) 10.60 -1.16 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.16 per share, $0.04 better than the First Call consensus of $0.12; revenues rose 30.3% year/year to $69.1 mln vs the $67.9 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q1, sees Q1 revs of $54-$58 mln vs. $58.66 mln consensus. Co states, "We remain committed to protecting our intellectual property and leveling the playing field for our customers. Our IP protection efforts in 2008, which included litigation and compliance efforts, resulted in increased royalty payments from various licensees..." 10:22AM Canadian Solar opens new research center and signs agreements with R&D organizations (CSIQ) 5.22 -0.24 : Co announces the opening of its new PV Cell Research Center. Co has signed research partnership contracts with DuPont, University of Toronto and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The 1500 M2 facility will cost a total of USD $10 million, with the bulk of the expenditures paid in 2008. 8:39AM On the Wires : Micron Technology (MU) and MOSAID Technologies announce that the companies have entered into agreements whereby Micron will license MOSAID's patent portfolio and MOSAID will acquire 400 Micron patents. The agreements settle all of the pending litigation between the companies... pSivida (PSDV) announces that Paul Ashton has been named President and Chief Executive Officer. :10AM DSP Group misses by $0.02, misses on revs (DSPG) 6.51 : Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.15 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.02 worse than the First Call consensus of $0.17; revenues fell 16.0% year/year to $71.6 mln vs the $76.6 mln consensus. 7:09AM Global semiconductor sales fell by 2.8% in 2008 : Global sales of semiconductors were severely impacted by the world-wide economic turmoil in 2008 resulting in the first year-on-year drop in sales since 2001, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. Total sales for 2008 were $248.6 billion compared to $255.6 billion in 2007, a decrease of 2.8%. Sales fell from $22.3 billion in December 2007 to $17.4 billion in December 2008, a decline of 22%. December sales declined by 16.6% from November 2008 when sales were $20.9 billion. "The global economic recession severely dampened semiconductor sales in the fourth quarter of 2008, historically a strong quarter for the industry," said SIA President George Scalise. "Weakening demand for the major drivers of semiconductor sales - including automotive products, personal computers, cell phones, and corporate information technology products - resulted in a sharp drop in industry sales that affected nearly all product lines. Once again, the steepest revenue declines were in the memory sector where price pressure more than offset significant growth in total bit shipments."

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (43182)	2/3/2009 11:16:07 AM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95632

No upturn for semiconductor equipment until at least June, says The Information Network Original date: 2009/2/3 The semiconductor equipment market will continue to be on a downward slope at least through the end of May, according to a recent report published by The Information Network. "Our leading indicators, which determine inflection points in economic activity and which we utilize to show turning points in semiconductor equipment sales five months out, continue to point down, indicating that there will be no upturn through May 2009," said Robert N Castellano, president of The Information Network. The steepness of the downward inflection in our indicators is greater than the downturn in 2001, suggesting that equipment revenues will exhibit a greater decrease that the 30% drop in 2001. That decline was followed by a 23% drop in 2002 and another 5% in 2003. Global semiconductor revenues will drop 41% in 2009, but a 20% recovery (of sorts) is expected to follow in 2010, the market research firm forecast. "We have been using these indicators since 2000 and they have proven to highly quantitative metrics in every forecast we have given, and in nearly every given year we have not had to change our forecast midstream," added Castellano. News website: www.digitimes.com