"Industry at a new baseline?"

(By Richard Holway 8.00am 15th Apr 09) Last night 'bellwether' Intel announced its Q1 results. They were pretty bloody with a 55% fall in profits to $647m and a 26% decline in revenues to $7.14b.

But it was what President and CEO Paul Olettini said about the future that caused most interest. "For internal purposes, Intel is currently planning for revenue approx. flat to Q1 in Q2". "The worst of slowdown is now behind us". "Sales of PCs have bottomed out after manufacturers have worked through their stockpiles".

This does fit with our piece - U - yesterday. I.e. no great resurgence or return to growth expected anytime soon. Just that perhaps things won't get too much worse. Of course, Intel are at the very start of the chain. So no need to adjust our forecasts for continued declines in the SITS sector further along the chain - yet! As we said yesterday, the U will have a long bottom.