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

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (52303)	6/4/2011 10:00:39 PM
From: Return to Sender	1 Recommendation Respond to of 95662

From Briefing.com: Weekly Recap - Week ending 03-Jun-11The stock market tumbled 2.3% during the holiday-shortened week following weaker-than-expected job growth in the U.S. and continued concerns over Greece. Treasury yields tumbled and the dollar index declined. All 10 sectors fell at least 1.0%. Cyclical sectors consumer discretionary (-3.2%), materials (-3.2%) and industrials (-3.1%) saw the biggest declines. The materials sector is now in negative territory for the year, joining the financial sector. The bulk of this week's decline occurred Wednesday as stocks dropped 2.2%. Risky assets came under pressure following a disappointing private employment reading and a weaker-than-expected ISM manufacturing reading. While the overall ISM number is still indicative of expansion, the pace of change proved to be the upsetting factor. Negative news regarding Greece pushed stocks even lower late in the day. Moody's. Rating Service cut the rating of Greek debt to Caa1 from B1, and assigned a negative outlook, noting a high probability of default. Historically, sovereign debt that is downgraded to Caa1 or below typically defaults around 20% of the time within one year and 35% of the time within three years. The May employment report marked the big economic item of the week. Total nonfarm payrolls rose just 54,000 (Briefing.com consensus +169,000) while private sector payrolls rose 83,000 (Briefing.com consensus +180,000). Both numbers were well below averages for the prior three months, which were 220,000 and 244,000 respectively. The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1% from 9.0% (Briefing.com consensus 9.0%); the average workweek held steady at 34.4 hours (Briefing.com consensus 34.3); and average hourly earnings increased 0.3% (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%). The latter was the most welcome surprise, yet the enthusiasm for the result is mitigated by the understanding that average hourly earnings over the last 12 months are up 1.8%, meaning they are negative on an inflation-adjusted basis. The long-term unemployed (i.e., those workers unemployed 27 weeks or more) now account for 45.1% of the unemployed versus 43.1% in April. Payroll gains in May were confined mostly to professional and business services and health care. Government shed 29,000 workers, most at the local level and concentrated in the education sector. The positive is that there is still job growth, yet the prevailing negative today is that the job growth isn't strong enough to bring down the unemployment rate and it isn't strong enough to lift consumer confidence and consumer spending by a meaningful degree. Ironically, the latter understanding is a key reason why businesses are reluctant to hire in aggressive fashion. The defensive posturing was evident in Treasuries, which were a favorite among market players as buying across the complex ran maturities to their best levels since early December. The 10-year yield dropped below 3.00% for the first time since December 6, and when it was all said and done the benchmark yield ended at 2.99%. Index Started Week Ended Week Change % Change YTD % DJIA 12441.58 12151.20 -290.38 -2.3 5.0 Nasdaq 2796.86 2732.78 -64.08 -2.3 3.0 S&P 500 1331.10 1300.16 -30.94 -2.3 3.4 Russell 2000 836.26 808.13 -28.13 -3.4 3.1 STMicroelectronics (STM) introduced the first member of a family of power transistors that are fully qualified for use in electronic subsystems on board satellites and launchers. 1:32 pm S&P 500 Tech Sector -0.8%; CSCO for RIMM Rumors Circulate The tech sector is trading lower today along with losses in the broader market. Semiconductors are showing in-line weakness in the tech space with the Philly Semi Index trading 0.7% lower. Among chips in the index, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -1.9%) is a notable laggard. Among other major indices, the S&P 500 is trading 0.5% lower while the NASDAQ is trading 0.7% lower. The QQQ, meanwhile, is trading 0.8% lower. Among tech bellwethers, T (-0.9%) and VZ (-0.9%) are under pressure. In earnings last night, VeriFone Systems (PAY -1.6%) reported a Q2 beat and a Q3 raise with in-line FY11 guidance. Also last night, Altera Corp (ALTR -1.5%) reaffirmed Q2 sales guidance. In news, American Tower (AMT -4.7%) received a subpoena from the SEC requesting certain documents from 2007 through the present, including in particular documents related to the company's tax accounting and reporting. In rumors, we are hearing Cisco Systems (CSCO -0.8%) for Research in Motion (RIMM -1.2%) takeover chatter making the rounds. Among the more notable analyst upgrades this morning, Sterne Agee upgraded Avago Technologies (AVGO +0.9%) to Buy, Netgear (NTGR +0.8%) was upgraded to Buy at Lazard, and Aruba Networks (ARUN +2.5%) was upgraded to Overweight at Barclays. In downgrades this morning, Shanda Interactive Entertainment (SNDA -0.9%) was downgraded to Underweight at HSBC Securities, Sterne Agee downgraded Skyworks (SWKS -4.9%) to Neutral, and Kenexa (KNXA -6.7%) was downgraded to Neutral at Longbow.

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (52303)	6/4/2011 10:32:51 PM
From: Gottfried	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95662

Don, [edited] re 'hated companies': Andreessen went on a tirade about how low the price/earnings ratios for the tech behemoths are. Microsoft (MSFT) has a forward-looking P/E of 8.63 times. Cisco Systems' (CSCO) P/E is 9.25. "P/Es in single-digits are what steel mills trade at before they go out of business," Andreessen quipped. "What these things tell me is the public market hates tech. It's tremendously scarred by 10 years ago." excerpt is from... "Why LinkedIn's Up and Microsoft's Down" online.barrons.com tinyurl.com also good reading "5 Undervalued Tech Titans to Buy Now" seekingalpha.com tinyurl.com