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Technology Stocks : Lattice Semiconductor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Platter who wrote (316)	12/11/1998 7:39:00 AM
From: Platter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 339

From TheStreet.com...."Herb on TheStreet: More Chip Chatter By Herb Greenberg Senior Columnist 12/11/98 6:30 AM ET Fried-Day: Sorry to sound like a broken record, but: I continue to hear queasy info about chip supply and demand. The 83% rise in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index to its high from its lows in October reflected a widespread belief that chips are in short supply. However, discussions with several very well-wired and always reliable money management sources, whose clients come from chip- and PC-related industries, indicate the mood of those clients has changed dramatically in recent weeks. They say prices have started to fall rapidly, especially on the lower-priced chips like Intel's (INTC:Nasdaq) Celeron, supplies of which are now plentiful. The excess supply, and falling prices, is especially noticeable with DRAM memory chips, which are starting to slide from their recent highs. (Seems the renewed push toward full production by the Koreans, as this column mentioned several weeks ago, is finally starting to take hold.) Even the American IC Exchange, whose business is tracking chip supply and demand, doesn't see a shortage. In its daily commentary yesterday, the exchange wrote: "In keeping with the end of the year theme, OEMs are in the market offering excess supply on DRAM and CPUs. Reducing inventory levels is common practice at each quarter end, but quantities are typically greater during the calendar year end." In other words, despite talk of a boom, this year is no different. What's more, Merrill Lynch's Tom Kurlak, who recently seemed to be softening his stance on Intel, yesterday told his clients that talk of a boom in chip sales is little more than "irrational exuberance." His key points: The seasonal PC pickup, as this column suggested last week, is being driven by retail sales of sub-$1,000 models; corporate PC demand is "not materially affected by the Year 2000 debacle"; and PCs are not enough to drive an overall industry recovery, because they account for only 36% of the market."