Weak demand
Chip giant Intel has released its preliminary fourth quarter financial results and they reveal a year-on-year revenue drop of 23 percent, to 8.2 billion. This is lower even than Intel's revised prediction of last November and below analyst expectations.
Intel's statement said revenue was lower than expected "as a result of further weakness in end demand and inventory reductions by its customers in the global PC supply chain."
In addition, Intel is taking a hit against its investment in WiMAX company Clearwire. When Intel made the investment back last May, Clearwire stock was worth around $15. Now it's trading at around $5, so Intel is taking a non-cash charge of its Q4 earnings of around $950 million.
The full earnings announcement will be on 15th January. Intel shares were down around five percent on the news, but seemed to be recovering at time of writing.
