Intel: The Horror…the Horror

If it’s true that the semiconductor industry is among the first sectors to recover after a recession or economic slowdown, then the coming months are looking pretty bleak. Semiconductor giant Intel (INTC) said this morning that its preliminary fourth-quarter revenue has fallen to approximately $8.2 billion–down 23 percent year-over-year. Seems “further weakness in end demand and inventory reductions by…customers in the global PC supply chain” have caused the company to miss a forecast that it cut by $1 billion less than two months ago. Worse, this latest drop in revenues surpasses the 20 percent decline Intel reported in the fourth quarter of 2001–after the first tech bubble burst.

Happy days. Sigh.

As one might imagine, Intel investors have not reacted favorably to the news and are at this very moment fleeing en masse into the woods. The company’s shares are trading down nearly six percent as I write this.