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Technology Stocks : INVX Innovex Comdex Winner !! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (2662)	9/19/1998 10:11:00 AM
From: Joe Btfsplk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3029

From Barron's re a Montgomery conference: "The indicators for another battered group, disc-drive manufacturers, seemed more promising. Claudio Osario, CEO of CHS Electronics, a distributor of disc-drives, ...... to non-U.S markets, contends he's seeing shortages of some disc-drive models. This is not the first time he's made that claim, which some might find hard to believe given the recent disarray in the drive industry. Nonetheless, Osario insists it's true, especially for three-gigabyte drives, which go into low-end personal computers. As it turns out, Ultratech's Zafiropoulo also offered encouraging words on drives. ......His forecast: seasonal improvement in drives in the third and fourth quarters, a dip in the first quarter of 1999, and then a real recovery starting in next year's second quarter." "Michael Cannon, CEO of Maxtor, the sole drive maker to make a presentation at the conference, asserted that excess inventories largely have been cleaned up, just as the industry is entering into its seasonally strongest period. By the fourth quarter, he contends, most PC makers will have inventories about where they want them. Also optimistic is Wayne Fortun, CEO of Hutchinson Technology, which supplies suspension arms, a key component of drives. He told a sparsely attended session that drive inventories are as low as they've been in two or three years. Asked about a Montgomery analyst's estimate that Hutchinson will earn $2 a share in fiscal '99, Fortun grinned, "I think he's close." If so, it's a cheap stock. Hutchinson, which this year will lose money, last week closed at 15 1/8, down from a 52-week high of 36 1/8." As a bloodied INVX long, the combo worries me. A recovery in DD sector seems on the horizon. Does Hutchinson "$2 a share in fiscal '99" indeed imply they might grab market share at INVX expense?