The microprocessor company earlier today said that December quarter revenues will be about $1 billion below previous expectations due to the reduced PC production that has resulted from a disk-drive shortage triggered by the recent flooding in Thailand. While both Seagate and Western Digital have previously warned that drives would be in short supply for at least the next several quarters, the news apparently had not trickled down into the EPS estimates for the PC-related stocks.
Adding to the pressure: a Goldman Sachs note which asserts that the Street's estimates for Microsoft are too high.
There are overlapping concerns here: while Intel clearly is blaming the drive issues for the shortfall, there are some worries on the Street that a soft economy is also crimping PC demand.
In this morning trading:
- Intel is down 95 cents, or 3.8%, to $24.06.
- Advanced Micro Devices is down 25 cents, or 4.5%, to $5.29.
- Western Digital is down 82 cents, or 2.5%, to $31.56.
- Seagate is down 16 cents, or 1%, to $16.
- Dell is down 38 cents, or 2.4%, to $15.41.
- Hewlett-Packard is down 42 cents, or 1.5%, to $27.36.
- Micron is down 17 cents, or 2.9%, to $5.72.
- Nvidia is down 53 cents, or 3.6%, to $14.37.
- Microsoft is down 38 cents, or 1.5%, to $25.33.
