Basically for the nine months, they're doing close to a billion dollars in sales. A very strong book-to-bill (ratio, which measures orders versus shipments). I think this stock offers a lot of appreciation potential over the next year. |
Downgrades outweigh upgrades and fear outweighs greed. This is not a market that can weather uncertainty and it's been pretty brutal. |
Especially with the numbers actually coming out, the tendency for this market has been to get out of those stocks reporting earnings a day or two before the report because after they report, it's going to be downhill. |
I do think, though, longer term the semiconductor area, both equipment makers and the chip producers, is probably the best area to be in this market looking forward. |
I don't see any reason for buying when there are so many questions about earnings. There's not a lot of resolve here and the market doesn't have a lot of zing to it. |
I still think earnings reports are going to be very good. I think we're getting to the end of rate hike situation on the part of the Fed. |
I'm not very enthusiastic. I think the market is not behaving well as a whole. There's just a lot of trepidation about earnings when you look forward into the new year when the reports come in January. |
In January, April and July, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have closed down when earnings are reported but they tend to be better ahead of earnings so I don't expect October to be any different. It's a very volatile market and things shift very quickly but the expectations are just so high ahead of earnings. |
It does look like we reached a shorter-term capitulation but I don't think sentiment ever got negative enough to suggest an absolute low. |
It was pretty much exclusively by midday a Nasdaq rally. |
It's just eroding. It's all panic and follow-through on tech earnings fears. Biotech and Internet stocks are all getting slammed with some flight to safety into Dow stocks, but I don't see it being sustained. |
It's that one-two punch. You downgrade Intel yesterday, you downgrade Micron today and it ripples all through technology - even the strong stocks can't hold up. |
Many stocks have already built in good earnings. A stock like Goldman Sachs had a tremendous run over the last two or three months, so my sense would be you'll have a 'sell on good news' for a lot of these financial stocks that have rallied. |
So much of the market now is tied to PC demand and all of the other companies that produce equipment that either goes into a PC, into the box or the software which makes them run. |
So, the longer-term story looks great for Applied Materials. It just may be a bit overheated here. If we were to get about a 20 percent pullback in this stock, I think it would be very attractive. |