Eric Ross Quotations

We're in for a rough quarter with Intel.

We're seeing a real resurgence in the use of wallpaper. For a while it was so out of style that many smaller manufacturers went out of business. The paint and faux finishes just dominated home design; that is no longer the case.

We are hearing the back-to-school season was good and that notebooks were particularly strong. We are expecting they are going to see normal seasonality for the industry into the fourth quarter.

There is a lot more to the processor business than selling processors. Controlling the supply chain and controlling product offerings is almost more important. And it's not just the supply chain, it's their manufacturing ability. They are way ahead in terms of manufacturing ability and economies of scale.

Maybe you can make another 50 percent from here, but people are skittish, ... The problem in this market is that everyone's looking for the momentum play. Any sort of fear that a company isn't going to be able to sustain a momentum ends up a reason to dump shares.

If Intel is seeing some problems, and it's not all market-share problems, that's got to affect the rest of the semiconductor industry. We heard there are inventories of PCs out there as well.

HP's best business is printing and imaging and the company diluted that by buying Compaq,

Guidance was disappointing. Inventories and chipset shortages are still issues.

I think this is the start of a sustainable rally. Fundamentals appear to be good and end-market demand is good. Average selling prices for chips are holding up.

People are less likely to travel to Hong Kong but does that mean business is slow because of that? No, it's because the economy hasn't picked up.

The fact that they are raising cap-ex shows that they expect business is strong enough to support the investment.,

We upgraded the entire semiconductor group about six weeks ago,

We keep hearing from our Asian supply chain partners that AMD is having a great quarter.

The reason they are doing this is they need to move away from the PC to being a solution provider. The real growth for the next five years is cell phones, and for the next 10 years is probably consumer electronics, and Intel has done a really poor job of penetrating those areas.

While we are certainly impressed, we believe most of the good news is already in the stock, and are in no rush to chase this name,

Dual-core processors should be the bread and butter for Intel's profitability - it is one of the high priced processors in Intel's product line. Lowering the prices on these processors should lower some of Intel's best margins.

Flash and processors are more viable as separate companies,

The timing of this reset relative to current stock prices is not a prediction of further weakness.

The worst of the news is behind us and if people think the sector will bounce back, investors will buy stocks ahead of that,

The move in stock is a little overdone. There is an expectation that business will improve due to the lawsuit and that's the sole reason that the stock has gone up, ... But the case will be heard probably in a year and a half at earliest so I'm having trouble believing that this will have a near-term benefit for AMD.

This is an unusual and unexpected pricing move. Typically, Intel will lower pricing on its older-generation product line when ready to introduce a new product.

This is pretty positive. Intel blew away the numbers,

They still have plenty of cash. They're not going to spend $25 billion on the first day. This is just what they're allowed to buy back if they feel the timing right.

AMD must be gaining share. PC demand is strong, even if Intel isn't.

They essentially have a less competitive architecture right now, though in the second half of the year they might have a better one.

They're obviously looking at their share price. What they are really saying is that they think the shares are undervalued.

It sounds like it is a new company that is going to do other things, but the first and largest customer is Apple, and it is likely to be the largest customer for a while.

Does the drop in Intel's stock worry me? No. It's an indication that people made money in Intel and are trying to lock in their gains.

The biggest risk would be how to sell these things. They answered that by buying a robust distribution channel.

They certainly don't give me any confidence. Their assumption for the back half of the year assumes a lot of things that certainly haven't happened over the last two quarters.

The revenue number was lighter than expected. Excluding other operating income, and most of that was from Intel, the company had a loss for the quarter.

In 2000 flash was a huge contributor to AMD's earnings, ... In 2003 it was a contributor as well, but if pricing continues, it will be a drag for the company, and there are no natural buyers of the AMD flash business.

Intel's costs are largely fixed, and we believe pricing cuts will eat away at margins.

Intel has been struggling to find a way out of PCs for the last six or seven years. I never dreamed they'd drop 'Intel Inside.' Their marketing has been exceptionally successful.

Inventories were getting burned down heavily in January and February and that should continue into March. Chip shipments should be reflecting true demand in the second quarter.

If I'm one of the investors that got in early, I'm going to take some off the table, ... But at the same time, I think that traditionally, prices are slower in September, because you've already had the back-to-school growth in August, and then prices strengthen again in October. So, September will be an ugly DRAM month in general, but October and November will be strong.

The first quarter was a little better than I was expecting. The second-quarter (estimate) was worse than I modeled. We're in for a rough quarter with Intel.