There was no shortage of news in what turned out to be a shortened-trading
week due to the passing of former President Ronald Reagan. Oil prices remained
in check, and momentum was strong ahead of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's
speech last week before a central bank panel at a conference in London.
Greenspan noted the Fed would "do what is required" to curb inflation, even if
their view of a gradual rise in interest rates proves to be wrong. Buyers
maintained their enthusiasm during that session, but a bout of selling action
took hold the following day. Paul Cherney, chief real-time market analyst at
S&P MarketScope, told Reuters News, "It's natural to see some profit-taking
after the kind of lift we had recently ... But the fact that markets didn't
sell off after his comments was positive." Technology issues remained strong
in the face of some negative chip stories. "In an economic recovery, you're
going to be drawn to more cyclical sectors like industrials, materials and
tech ... Tech is the biggest of all of those, so it garners the most
attention," said John Caldwell, chief investment strategist at McDonald
Financial Group, to Reuters News. Texas Instruments tightened its
second-quarter earnings outlook, which disappointed some analysts who wanted
to see larger profits. OmniVision Technologies suffered greatly on word it may
restate results for fiscal 2003 and part of fiscal 2004. The firm also
rescheduled the release of its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2004 results and
issued initial first-quarter earnings guidance that was short of Street
expectations. Elsewhere, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and United
Microelectronics tumbled on downgrades from Goldman Sachs. Still, National
Semiconductor posted a stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit. This
week, tech titan Oracle's quarterly report will surely garner attention,
alongside a substantial dose of economic reports.
High-Tech Monday Update is provided courtesy of Thomson Financial. This
information is believed to be true and accurate; we take no responsibility for
inaccurate information and reserve the right to update our reports. For more
information, please visit our web site at http://www.thomson.com/financial.
SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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