SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Applied Materials Inc., the world’s largest chip equipment maker, threw more fuel onto the fire of investor fears of a double-dip recession Wednesday, confirming comments by other tech giants who have talked about a sudden slowing of demand for their products in the last six weeks.
Applied AMAT +2.13% chief executive Mike Splinter told analysts on a conference call that he is now expecting chip makers to spend $1 billion less on new equipment than the company forecast in July. “We’ve seen demand from our foundry customers soften significantly in the past six weeks,” Splitner said. See Applied news here.
During the month of July, most of the tech companies who reported during the standard quarterly earnings period had decent financial outlooks. But once August rolled around and companies like NetApp NTAP -0.99% gave a weak outlook, investors started to see things were unraveling, even in the hotter corporate computing space.
Wednesday’s comment by Applied, a bellwether of tech, shows how quickly demand appears to be falling and it’s not a good sign for the rest of the economy.
Market Watch
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