Micron---Su (fast)
Japanese market---Catherine (slow)
>> micron technology, the world’s second biggest maker of computer memory chips reported its 10th straight quarterly loss after the bell tonight. the company said its wider than expected third quarter loss due to inventories charges and a drop in sales and chip prices. su keenan is here with the latest. su.
>> sales of micron technology closed higher in advance of tonight’s earnings report, lane. the company, while reporting a wider-than-expected loss, is reporting improved savings. the company said in a statement, significantly improved manufacturing costs in the third quarter mitigated the effects of declines in average selling prices. let’s get to the numbers now. micron’s loss excluding items is approximately 56 cents a share, three cents wider than the average analysts surveyed. sales fell 5%, $733 million in the last quarter. still, that was higher than analysts’ estimates for sales of $730.5 million. its shares rose three cents to $13.08 in today’s session. shares had been up as high as 3.5% intraday. it’s important to point out analysts say trade nothing micron shares has always been driven by the pricing of its main product, dynamic random access memory or dram. dram is used primarily in personal computers. computers are on the decline and dram prices have been in a free fall until recently. a spot price on the benchmark memory chip has risen 17 person from its low in mid may, and that’s according to d dramexchange.com. micron shares have nearly doubled from earlier this year when the stock had fallen below $7, which was a 90% drop from its peck in 2000. sanford bernstein’s analyst adam parker rates micron a market perform saying this stock may continue to move higher near-term because of the improvement in dram pricing. but he says its competitive position is hurt by rivals such as samsung which produced at a lower cost. needham & companno carrier ringconnect 1200.
>> hitachi is japan’s biggest maker of electronics, while n.e.c. is japan’s biggest personal computer maker. i spoke with the owner of samsung electric shares for the fund he manages in san francisco and he says if micron gives a positive guidance it will be good for the tech sector. dram is set to lead the industry. he plans to buy more shares if the u.s. economy speeds up. lehman brother’s analyst told me semiconductor makers track dram price trends and micron earnings may move hitachi and n.e.c. though the impact may not be very big. an analyst at inc. securities japan told investors to hold shares of at van test. advantest is the world’s biggest maker of equipment use todd test memory chips. ntt docomo holds its annual shareholders meeting today. they want shareholders to approve a plan to buy back about $5 billion of its stock . ing securities telecom analyst said he wants to know what ntt docomo plans to do to increase subscribers for its high speed service.
>> it should generate more revenue and the operational figure will tell us how is the number after this gradual takeup of fullmer.
>> he tells investors to sell n.t.t. docomo stocks .
>> nissan motor holds its annual shareholders meeting today. probably have happy faces there. what is expected?
>> well, indeed. nissan’s president carlos ghosn is going to ask its shareholders for a pay hike. the japan’s biggest carmaker delivered a third straight year of record profits and asking shareholders to boost the company director’s pay to as much as 33%. nissan motor shares rose to almost a 13-year high on wednesday on optimism of higher profits. the nikkei 225 now at the chicago mercantile exchange remained unchanged. i’ll be watching tech stocks as well as auto makers. back to you, lane.
>> catherine yang in tokyo. and stay tuned.
