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Technology Stocks : PLASMA THERM (PTIS) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JM who wrote (294)	12/31/1997 10:12:00 AM
From: C. Shivery	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 509

It Is No Longer Called the "Asian Flu" for Tech Stocks What has been commonly called the "Asian Flu, Asian Contagion, Asian Currency Crisis or Asian Turmoil" can now be called, "Asian Herpes" because the Asian troubles do not seem to be going away yet there is always a promise of a new cure. As a result with the Asian currency crisis and of the sort, it is believed that they will have to export themselves out of the mess they are in. World governments including the US promise money that will help stabilize the Asian currency and hopefully the economy. As a direct result many technology stocks have been beaten up, taken out back, shot and then potentially cremated. One group of stocks that has been specifically hit by the Asian turmoil is the semiconductor capital equipment group. BusinessWeek had an interesting article in the recent 12/29/97 issue titled "Don't Hightail It Out Of High Tech". One company in that article was KLA-Tencor. One fund manager thinks that, "KLA-Tencor has a technological edge that will boost profits more than 30% in 1998. Its stock, meanwhile, has plummeted 55% from its August high of 76 7/8, resulting in a below-market price-earnings multiple." KLA is one of the world's largest supplier to the wafer, reticle inspection and optical metrology equipment markets. One thing KLA very good at is providing consistent revenues and (usually) earnings which have been increasing each year since 1992. Long term investors will note that KLA has what it takes to weather an industry downturn in the semiconductor area. Their stock can still go down but probably not another $35 to $40 points from the high of $76 7/8. Another victim of the Asia turmoil is Kulicke & Soffa. K & S is one of the worlds largest supplier of semiconductor assembly equipment. Their stock has been shaved from a high of $58 to a low of $16 1/2. If one was to look at the long term chart of K & S, they would notice that 75% corrections are not at all uncommon when it comes to this stock. As a matter of fact Forbes has a great article on why K & S and its peers will "soon show the effects of the Asian calamity." Well one thing is for certain, the stock market has been known to forecast the outlook for companies from time to time. The Asian calamity has already been thrown into the semiconductor equipment sector of the market and this has caused many stocks in that area to go down severely as you already know or can see for yourself. As for analysts, I do not know what they do all day in their office's but they must be drinking some pretty heavy coffee in order for them to downgrade a stock after it is trading at 1/3 from its highs. Alex Brown and Merrill Lynch both downgraded K & S under $20 per share, why not when it was trading at 2/3 its value off of its high? Cymer Inc. is another beaten down dog that saw it's shares plummet from a high of around $50 to around $15 a share. Cymer is the maker of the excimer laser illumination sources for use in deep ultraviolet ("DUV") photolithography systems. Cymer's excimer lasers have been purchased by the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Philips. Chipmakers must now rely on excimer lasers as the illumination source for production of semiconductors with critical geometries below 0.35-micron. You can read more about Cymer and the excimer laser by clicking here. Many semiconductor equipment stocks have been knocked for a loop and beaten down. The best time to buy beaten down techstocks in the past is when they are in times of turmoil. If you are waiting for the fat lady to sing, she will not sing any louder than she is right now. It is still entirely possible for the 3 previous stocks to keep going lower and possibly 50% lower. The wonderful thing about the information age is that information is now being dispersed so fast that sometimes the financial markets need time to understand and digest what is going on. End of year tax selling can also wreak havoc. Investors wishing to purchase those stocks may find it best to buy some now and then wait a few months and possibly purchase more. The bad news is that when a recovery is in progress those stocks will shoot up like a rocket and you can miss the boat, in this case you could say rollar-coaster.