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NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by Market Pulse.

While the initial run was based on an inventory build following massive depletions, whether they will continue to run will depend much more on demand factors heading into 2010.

Technology stocks sell off sharply in morning trading, as renewed global credit fears set the trading tone across the equities market in the abbreviated session following Thanksgiving.

Though microchips may not be the hot conversation topic, Texas Instruments could have a good year.

Technology stocks see mild gains in morning activity, though sector leader Microsoft Corp. opens in the red following news that its chief financial officer is leaving at the end of the year.

The billionaire founder of Galleon Group denies charges of insider trading and attacks the government’s use of wiretaps in its investigation of the hedge-fund firm.

Novellus Systems (NVLS) raised its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings outlook, as a result of the ongoing recovery in the semiconductor market. The company now expects revenues of $225-245 million, compared to previous guidance of $215-245 million, which raises the mid-point from $230 to $235 million. Management had previously guided to bookings increase of 25-50%, which were not [...]

(NVLS) Novellus Systems Raises Guidance

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) reported a strong quarter at the end of October on the back of resurgent demand in the PC market. But the key issue to watch is the important transition in the company’s major technologies. Microsoft just launched its very successful Windows 7 operating system, which has produced a major new ...

Novellus Systems (NVLS) raised its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings outlook, as a result of the ongoing recovery in the semiconductor market.
 
The company now expects revenues of $225-245 million, compared to previous guidance of $215-245 million, which raises the mid-point from $230 to $235 million.
 
Management had previously guided to bookings increase of 25-50%, which were not subsequently revised. Therefore, we assume that bookings are expected to remain within this range.
 
GAAP gross margin expectations were also not revised and remain in the 44-47% range.
 
EPS expectations were raised to 25-40 cents from previous guidance of 20-40 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the fourth quarter is pegged at 31 cents, close to the middle of the revised range.
 
The company’s third-quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. Order momentum, stronger DRAM and NAND prices, higher volumes, higher utilization rates and a lower cost structure contributed to the better-than-expected results.
 
The computing and smart phone markets drove strength in the third quarter and are expected to drive fourth quarter results as well.
 
The company generates the largest chunk of revenues from the Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and then Europe. We expect the Asia Pacific region to remain strong in the next quarter, as the strength in DRAM and NAND prices continue. Last quarter, revenues from the region increased double-digits both sequentially and year over year. We also expect improvement in both North America and Europe.
 
Not only Novellus, but other equipment makers such as ASML Holdings (ASML), Applied Materials (AMAT) and KLA Tencor (KLAC), microprocessor makers such as Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and analog makers such as Linear Technology (LLTC), Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM), Intersil Corp (ISIL) and Semtech (SMTC) reported stronger results in the last quarter.
Read the full analyst report on "NVLS"
Read the full analyst report on "ASML"
Read the full analyst report on "AMAT"
Read the full analyst report on "KLAC"
Read the full analyst report on "INTC"
Read the full analyst report on "AMD"
Read the full analyst report on "LLTC"
Read the full analyst report on "MXIM"
Read the full analyst report on "ISIL"
Read the full analyst report on "SMTC"
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Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) reported a strong quarter at the end of October on the back of resurgent demand in the PC market. But the key issue to watch is the important transition in the company’s major technologies.[More...]

It looks like we are back to the fundamentals as concerns of economic recovery were exacerbated by a negative housing foreclosure update that confirmed the real estate crisis is spreading to the prime market. An economy bleeding jobs at a minimum monthly rate of 500k is the underlying cause.[More...]

Chip makers will describe plans to deliver server processors with eight CPU cores at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University next week, though there is some debate about what the products will mean for end-users.

For a long time, vendors boosted the performance of their microprocessors by increasing the clock speed, but concerns about power consumption and heat dissipation have steered them toward adding more processor cores to each chip instead.

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Advanced Micro Devices is designing a server chip with up to 16 cores, quadrupling the count of its current quad-core server chips, the company said Wednesday.

Code-named Interlagos, the chip will have between 12 and 16 cores and be released in 2011, the company said at a press conference that was Webcast. Interlagos will be a follow-up to the 12-core chip code-named Magny-Cours that AMD plans to release in the first quarter of 2010.