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

To: Henry D who wrote (2153)	4/14/1999 5:39:00 AM
From: Duker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3813

I know the ramp is probably a bit frustrating in comparison to our "everything should be a hockey stick" perspective. However, it seems to me that AMAT and LRCX (certainly the latter) are running at full bore. I would assume that NVLS is at the same point (we could argue that NVLS is a better manufacturer, so it may be able to tweak production a bit more). Bumping up against capacity and/or notifying firms that their product can not be delivered within the quarter will surely improve the pricing environment -- which was a big part of the reason that it was almost impossible to "blow out the numbers." AMAT, NVLS, LRCX, and TEL are still paying for the sins of placing machines in desperation a few months back. But, the backlog of "strategic pricing" (i.e., panic pricing) is quickly running off. A nice, linear ramp is really ideal from a manufacturing standpoint. This will benefit all. I like where we are and where we are headed. The stocks will react in due time. Maybe LRCX, perceived as the weakest of the three US front-end guys, will give the industry something to get excited about on April 22. They certainly owe it to everyone ... all they have done is pre-announce in the last year+! --Duker