Intel Corp’s first-quarter profit blew past Wall Street’s grim forecasts on Tuesday and the company claimed that personal computer sales “bottomed out” and have started recovering.
The optimistic comments were notable because Intel was the first technology company to report earnings for the first three months of this year. However, Intel let investors down by not giving specific revenue guidance. It’s not yet clear whether people are buying significantly more PCs, or whether Intel is mainly benefiting from computer makers replenishing their chip inventories, which had been whittled to low levels to save cash.
The Santa Clara, California-based company’s net income of US$647 million, or US$0.11 per share, was less than half what the company earned in the same period last year. But analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting far worse, having forecast profit of just US$0.03 per share. Some analysts had even predicted Intel would lose money for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Intel’s sales of US$7.1 billion were down 26 percent from last year, but about US$100 million higher than estimates.
In a broad sense, Intel’s outlook was relatively upbeat, given the uncertainty about the length and depths of the recession.
“We believe PC sales bottomed out during the first quarter and that the industry is returning to normal seasonal patterns,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement.
Yet Intel said it was too hard to predict its financial results for the second quarter. The company would only offer that revenue would likely be flat from the first quarter and gross profit margin in the “mid-40s” as a percentage of revenue.
Intel’s gross margin in the first quarter was 45.6 percent. That was down from 53.1 percent in the fourth quarter — a sign that Intel is running its factories at less than full capacity to account for soft demand.
Analysts expected second-quarter revenue of US$7.01 billion, so Intel’s forecast was roughly in line with that. The first and second quarters are typically the toughest for chip companies. Back-to-school season and the holidays are usually boom times.
Meanwhile, Dutch computer chip equipment maker ASML yesterday announced net losses of 117 million euros (US$155 million) for the first quarter against a profit of 145 million euros for the same period last year.
Sales, which hit 184 million euros in the first quarter, were only a fifth of the figure for the same period last year.
The results were in line with the expectations of financial analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, who predicted an average loss of 115 million euros and sales of 190 million euros.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS