“There’s growing concern that the U.S. computer industry is in for a bigger slump than previously thought,” Catherine Holahan reports for BusinessWeek.
“The second quarter is rarely a good time for computer makers. Back-to-school buying won’t get started in earnest for months, the holidays are half a year away—in both directions—and corporate IT budgets are still far from spent. But there’s growing concern that this year’s lull is hitting especially hard,” Holahan reports.
“Concerns over the U.S. computer industry surfaced on July 12, as some prominent Wall Street analysts made bearish remarks about Dell (DELL), the world’s largest PC maker, and Apple (AAPL), which makes computers and the popular iPod digital music player,” Holahan reports. “By the end of the trading day, tech stocks had taken a beating, with computer makers some of the biggest losers. Dell shares fell more than 4%, while Apple slumped almost 5%. Hewlett Packard (HPQ) dipped 2.7%.”
“Credit Suisse issued a report [recently] that did a number on Apple’s stock. The computer maker, which reports fiscal third-quarter results July 19, will probably issue sales and earnings forecasts for the current period that falls short of analysts’ expectations, Credit Suisse analyst Robert Semple wrote,” Holahan reports.
“Apple is likely to tell analysts that fourth-quarter sales will be $4.6 billion to $4.8 billion, compared with analysts’ estimates for sales of $5 billion, the report says. ‘We expect Apple will once again use the September quarter to reduce iPod inventories as the company prepares for a refresh of its product lineup,'” Holahan reports. “Apple has [also] been dogged by reports from analysts at other firms that the next version of the popular iPod music player will be delayed.”
Full article here.
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