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Zeev Hed

05/14/05 9:27 AM

#391670 RE: late bloomer #391667

Yes, the earnings background looks excellent, but could it be that it just is not going to look much better than that? Could it be the market is sensing slow but steady petering of consumer demand? Note that consumer related stocks are some of the weakest sectors.

I don't know which stocks made new highs on the Naz according to Yahoo Financials (they say 136, but the Naz site shows only 15 and that is a recent low while the Naz hit 1990 today). Maybe the other 116 are special situations like convertible bonds, etf etc. Does someone know how to get the list of 136 new high Yahoo quotes? This is probably one of the more telling divergences and why I saty in the bearish camp here. We did achieve the 100 or so Naz ramp I was expecting from the recent lows under 1900, and are in the dangerous 1975/2011 zone.


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ogm

05/14/05 10:49 AM

#391676 RE: late bloomer #391667

I think semis are showing temporary strength beacause a lot of money coming out of other sectors and are looking for home, and INTC, CSCO, DELL reports where OK. Nothing spectacular, just OK.
However enterprize spending isn't spectacular by any stretch. Notice how DELL has specificaly stressed the strong international sales in their earnings release. Wonder why is that ?
And we already know that most of the world is starting to struggle. UK and Europe are as close to entering a recession as ever.

Last quarter's solid INTC CSCO and DELL reports are only temporary. And backward looking. I wouldn't bet a dime on their forward guidance.

Pricing pressures in the semiconductor industry are still huge. Stocks are still trading at incredibly high premiums, and we still have options expensing going forward, though it got delayed a little. This industry is as commoditized and cyclical as anything else, and on top of that its very labor intensive. People are still willing to pay high premiums for no growth and cyclicality. Glory days of sexi names like BRCM are still on everyone's mind. Not gonna last.

This rally in semis is just another selling opportunity, IMO.

And of course if the general market will keep falling apart, nothing is safe.