Intel Falls on Earnings
The bears seem to be winning over the bulls in 2008, and Tuesday’s Intel results did nothing to change the perception that the U.S. stock market is in very bad shape. With the financial industry having to be bailed out by Asian and Middle Eastern money, and the housing market still in total capitulation, the U.S. tech sector has been one of the only domestic industries to still turn a profit. Now, with Intel missing earning on Tuesday, traders are asking themselves whether or not the last bastion of security has been compromised.
Intel didn’t necessarily have a bad quarter, though. Earnings were expected to be at $.40 per share, and came in at $.38, while the profit margin grew to the largest level in 2 years. According to an article in thestreet.com:
In a post-earnings conference call, Intel CEO Paul Otellini stressed that the company wasn’t seeing any signs of an economic slowdown. And he said Intel’s plans for 2008 assumed that the global PC market, to which Intel is the No. 1 supplier of microprocessors, would continue to grow at a low-double-digit clip.
“At this point we don’t see anything on the horizon; our customers don’t see anything on the horizon,” Otellini said regarding a slowdown in spending on PCs.
Intel lost about 14% after the conference call.
