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To: Michael Sphar who wrote (1751)	6/11/1998 1:16:00 PM
From: Doug	Respond to of 2389

Michael: None that I know. We need to get past earnings season for any positives.

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (1751)	6/11/1998 2:35:00 PM
From: L.B.Nguyen	Respond to of 2389

From Brief.com Chip equipment makers likely to stay on the defensive following assertion from Morgan Stanley that group will experience a revenue decline of 20%-22% from a previously expected decline of 12%-14%... SEMICONDUCTOR SECTOR. Given the various warnings that have been issued by various chip and equipment makers, the industry is still reeling from the glut in chips and lack of spending for new fabrication equipment. The disappointment in earnings is likely to last at least two more quarters as the sectors work through their excesses. To be sure, much of the rebound in these two groups is predicated on when Asia does start to improve, although with prices for microprocessors remaining very weak due to the oversupply in the industry, improvements in sales and earnings will be a slow process. While every analyst on Wall Street saw the downturn in Asia having an effect on the chip sector, most analysts underestimated the magnitude of this drop in demand from this region of the globe. For the most part, PC growth was expanding so fast that Asia was viewed to have only a modest impact on the torrid pace of activity. Unfortunately, this proved to be wrong and the tech sector has been issuing earnings warnings ever since. Not too surprising, this morning, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter lowered its 1998 capital equipment spending estimates due to lower-than-expected utilization rates. This sharper decline in spending expectations was probably induced by the fact that last week the Semiconductor Industry Association (SAI) lowered significantly its semiconductor growth projections. In fact, the SAI now expects a decline of 1.8% in 1998 from its previous forecast for an increase of 16%. Thus, it is not much of a surprise that so many chip companies have warned so early in the quarter, instead of waiting until the end of the period. This implies that we could still see more surprises in the next three weeks of June as we're still in the first part of the month. While chip and equipment makers are making drastic adjustments to changing demand conditions, there is no quick fix to the problems that afflicts the sectors. ----- I was a bit surprise to see the quick dip to +29 this morning.

To: Michael Sphar who wrote (1751)	6/12/1998 1:15:00 AM
From: Ed Robichaud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2389

Below is the article from Wall Street Journal regarding Xilinx CEO on CNBC Dow Jones Newswires -- June 11, 1998 Xilinx CEO: Semiconductor Industry Is Near Bottom NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The semiconductor industry is close to bottoming out, according to Wim Roelandts, chief executive of Xilinx Inc. (XLNX). "I think we are probably near the bottom," Roelandts said in an interview on CNBC Thursday morning. "This whole industry is in its second recession in two years, driven this time by (slack) demand caused by weakness in the Asian Pacific region and some segments like the PC industry." Xilinx is doing better than some of its rivals in the semiconductor industry because its Asian sales account for only about 15% of its business, and sales in the U.S. and Europe are brisk. "Our business in the States is slightly up over the last couple of quarters," he said. "Our biggest weakness has been in the Asian Pacific (region), but the U.S. and especially Europe is doing very well for us." "The main reason why we are doing better than the (semiconductor) industry in general, and of some of our competitors, is that Xilinx at this moment is in a very strong product position, so that really helps us offset some of the weakness in other parts of our industry and our business," Roelandts said. Xilinx invented the field programmable gate array (FPGA) and commands more than half of the world market for these devices. Xilinx products enable customers to reduce the time required to develop products for the computer, telecom, networking, industrial control, instrumental and control markets. The company recently announced a new speed grade in its programmable gate array family.