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TWST: How has the market been treating this space so far this year?
Mr. Ho: In general, if you look at it from the beginning of the year as
a whole, I think pretty well. But if you look at it closer or just to
give you a game analogy, if you broke it down into like quarters or into
periods, it's been a little bit choppy. I think we had a really good
start to the year. Stocks really shot up, I think, through the early
part of February. And since that time period and we are now into the
first week of April, I think we have given back some of the gains, and
there's been a little more of what I would call sideways trading in the
past few weeks. So, as a whole, if you look at from the beginning of the
year, very good. If you start breaking it down into specific parts for
the first quarter, we've seen a really rapid rise, and now we've seen it
give back some of the gains. TWST: Why, has anything changed?
Mr. Ho: I don't think anything has dramatically changed in terms of the
fundamentals. But as you know, stock prices generally reflect what we
think is going to happen in the future. And I think there has been a
growing sentiment since the beginning of the year that the second half
of 2006 and 2007 could exhibit potential signs of weakness. I don't
think anyone knows for sure at this time. But there has been a growing
consensus with the industry that there are potentially pockets of
weakness that will start emerging in the second half of 2006, which
could carry into 2007.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AMAT, AMD, ENTG, KLAC, LRCX, MTSN, NVLS, RTEC
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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