'Financial Times': Techs Gain on AMD's Strong Earnings
DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Now to our top business story: if the Nasdaq needed some incentive for a turnaround, it might find it by rallying around Advanced Micro Devices. The chip-maker has toppled expectations, reporting third quarter profits of $0.64 a share, 2 cents better than estimates. The after-the-bell news showed sales almost doubling to $1.2 billion, up from $662 million a year ago. And Intel's recent losses may be AMD's gain. Unlike it's huge rival, AMD is not predicting a slowdown in demand for PC processors. In fact, in the fourth quarter, AMD expects to sell eight to nine million of both its Athlon chips and Duron chips. It now sells nine of the top 10 PC-makers, all but Dell. For the entire year, AMD has boosted its estimates of PC processor sales by three million. Shares of AMD have dropped by more than half since late June on worries about the sector, and Wednesday's news caused an almost 10 percent jump in the company's stock price after hours. Those better-than-expected earnings from AMD are giving chip stocks a boost in Europe this morning. Philip Coggan, markets editor of the "Financial Times" joins us from the "FT"'s now with a closer look at what's going on. And Philip, I see the major markets are in positive territory today.</s>PHILIP COGGAN, MARKETS EDITOR, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Yes, absolutely, about time, we've been falling for ages. The Paris market yesterday closed at its lowest level since February, below 6000. The FTSE in London closed at it's lowest level since May, so, European investors very grateful for the news from AMD. We've got strong gains in the technology, the media and the telecom sector, also the banks, which had been looking very weak yesterday. The one exception in the good news front is a flow to the Greek mobile telecoms company Cosmote. That's come to the market today and it's already down below its offer price, so I think there's still a little bit of concern about mobile telephone groups after the Motorola news the other day.</s>MARCHINI: The markets do seem to be more in sympathy today. We've got Nasdaq and S&P; futures higher as well. What's going on with the euro? It's back down to 86 cents?</s>COGGAN: Yes, I'm -- it's right back down to the levels at which the central banks intervened recently. And I think it's one of those cases -- you know the Sherlock Holmes story of the dog that didn't bark. Well, with the problems we've had in the U.S., you would have expected the euro to start rebounding, and it sort of edged up above 87 cents, but, basically, it just hasn't have the lift from that bad news in the U.S. that the investors might have hoped for. So, now we're back down to the levels and waiting for central banks to come in and intervene again. So, of course, we -- they may do that and try and surprise the markets, but, of course, when you get to these kind of levels, and everybody's expecting them, that may not be that -- intervention may not be that effective an option.</s>MARCHINI: I know there's a strike going on in Venezuela in the oil sector there, the prospect of a strike elsewhere. Nonetheless, it looks pretty quiet on the oil front this morning.</s>COGGAN: Yes, we've seen a little bit of slippage in the oil price and I think the main reason is the agreement of the Israelis and the Palestinians to go in for talks, which has eased some of the tensions in the Middle East. But, once again, you're seeing the oil prices holding above $30 a barrel. And OPEC was supposed to be trying to get it between $22 and $28 a barrel, but all their extra production, all the petroleum reserve releases from the U.S., they haven't really got it down below $30 a barrel for anything but a brief span of time yet.</s>MARCHINI: All right, Philip Coggan, we'll see you again later in the program in the "FT"'s London newsroom.