Intel falls on weak sales outlook

Shares in Intel traded slightly lower yesterday after the world's biggest chipmaker issued a quarterly sales outlook that disappointed investors. However, shares of Intel's main rival, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), rose nearly 4 per cent.

"The PC market is strong and Intel is putting up weak numbers," said Kevin Rottinghaus, an analyst with FTN Midwest.

Intel shares fell 16 cent, or 0.6 per cent, to $25.54 (€21.60). Some 25 million shares changed hands in the first hour of Nasdaq trading, about half the three-month daily average.

Shares of AMD rose 95 cent, or 3.7 per cent, to $26.60. AMD has pressured Intel, especially with its Opteron microchip for server computers that run networks.

Concerns about Intel arose late on Thursday when the chipmaker issued a regularly scheduled mid-quarter earnings outlook.

Intel said it expects quarterly revenue of $10.4 billion to $10.6 billion, in the middle of its previous forecast range of $10.2 billion to $10.8 billion.

The midpoint of the revised range is only slightly below the average Wall Street forecast of $10.6 billion.

But analysts said investors had hoped that Intel would move its forecast toward the top end of its previous outlook after other chipmakers such as Texas Instruments and Xilinx strengthened forecasts on Wednesday.

Intel's outlook, and a weak forecast for capital expenditures, pressured some other big technology names, including semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials, off 14 cent at $18.59.