madmatt said:
They say Microsoft is the stock to buy right now, for obvious reasons.
ROFLMFAO
M$haft is down 11.38% today (were $27 last night $24 now). They are not meeting analysts expectations.
Intel has been in the crapper since Dec 2003. It's at $20 marked down from $33. No releif in sight.
Stay away from AMD also. Their stock is way up but grossly overpriced for the earnings they can generate.
The PC industry has generally been depressed for the last 18 months. It is a cyclical business and everybody has already upgraded. Aside from us techie nerds here nobody wants to upgrade right now unless their old PC is dying. The comments I hear most are:
"Upgrade? Why, my current computer is fast for everything I do with it."
"I upgraded by a factor of 2 and can't tell any difference."
It takes a must have, resource hungry new application (application, not operating systems) to drive computer upgrades. Desktops being replaced by laptops is where the business growth model is and current generation laptops don't need faster new chips, they need 3 times more battery life.
The demand for faster chips will come when enough people have bought cut rate systems with Vista installed and get tired of the slow performance. That's 12-18 months away. The stock market prices stocks at valuation 6 months ahead. That means Intel and M$ won't be selling much through the end of the year.