Our last HEXUS.sharewatch anticipated the Q2 earnings announcements of chip makers Intel and AMD. Intel’s passed without great incident; it just continued to make piles of cash, in fact more than it ever has in Q2 before.
The contrast at AMD two days later could barely have been greater. Not only did it announce yet another massive quarterly loss, it said it was selling off its handheld and DTV businesses and replacing its CEO of eight years. While there was a bit of a sell-off of AMD shares the day after the announcement, the change in our chart isn’t too dramatic as the stock had been steadily climbing earlier in the week in anticipation of the announcement.
Elsewhere in the tech sector, there were also earnings announcements from Google, Microsoft and IBM. Both Google and Microsoft didn’t do quite as well as analysts had expected, but only Google’s shares seem to have suffered as a consequence. IBM showed a healthy year-on-year increase and its shares continue to go from strength to strength.
There are a bunch more earnings announcements this week. Apple and Logitech go today, while Ingram Micro and Western Digital have their turn on Thursday. The biggie could be Yahoo! tomorrow, however. Yahoo!’s Q2 performance could have a major bearing on the outcome of the proxy fight that will culminate on 1st August at its shareholder meeting.
If Yahoo! does better than expected then it could strengthen the position of the existing board, which maintains it’s the best people for the job. If it under-performs, however, then Carl Icahn’s campaign to replace them and potentially flog some or all of the company to Microsoft will receive a boost.
| Company | Listing | Share Price 27/6/08 | Share Price 3/7/08* | Share Price 11/7/08 | Share Price 18/7/08 | 7-day change | Market cap (bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | AMD | 5.95 | 5.17 | 4.84 | 4.65 | -3.9% | 2.82 |
| Apple | AAPL | 170.09 | 168.00 | 172.58 | 165.15 | -4.3% | 145.60 |
| Avnet | AVT | 27.55 | 24.83 | 25.50 | 27.57 | 8.1% | 4.15 |
| Dell | DELL | 22.25 | 22.94 | 22.31 | 24.23 | 8.6% | 48.97 |
| GOOG | 528.07 | 530.99 | 533.80 | 481.32 | -9.8% | 151.18 | |
| HP | HPQ | 44.58 | 42.72 | 41.59 | 43.42 | 4.4% | 107.82 |
| IBM | IBM | 120.05 | 118.56 | 122.12 | 129.89 | 6.4% | 178.40 |
| Ingram Micro |
IM | 17.81 | 17.16 | 16.82 | 17.48 | 3.9% | 2.94 |
| Intel | INTC | 21.49 | 20.46 | 20.64 | 22.09 | 7.0% | 126.53 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 27.63 | 25.90 | 25.25 | 25.86 | 2.4% | 236.64 |
| NVIDIA | NVDA | 19.28 | 13.04 | 11.67 | 11.56 | -0.9% | 6.41 |
| Tech Data |
TECD | 34.13 | 34.65 | 33.85 | 34.14 | 0.9% | 1.81 |
| Yahoo! |
YHOO | 21.33 | 21.59 | 23.57 | 22.45 | -4.8% | 30.89 |
| Dow | .DJI | 11346.51 | 11210.05 | 11100.54 | 11496.57 | 3.6% | NA |
| NASDAQ | .IXIC | 2315.63 | 2239.52 | 2239.08 | 2282.78 | 2.0% | NA |
| FTSE 100 | .FTSE | 5529.90 | 5439.90 | 5261.60 | 5376.40 | 2.2% | NA |
*All prices are those at close of trading on the date
specified, except 3/7/08 when we quoted prices and market caps at 15:00
UK time, 10:00 US eastern time.
