- The Nasdaq is down 2.3%, but Intel (INTC +0.3%) remains up slightly. Possibly helping: Pac Crest's Mike McConnell (Overweight rating, $35 target) reports September notebook shipments appear set to top expectations by 5%-10%, that desktop motherboard makers are seeing improved demand from OEMs, and that server-related chip demand from cloud service providers is rebounding strongly following a recent slowdown.
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Citi and Wells Fargo argued PC demand is stabilizing earlier this month, while citing healthy August sales data from Taiwanese contract manufacturers. Windows 10 launched on July 29, and Intel began a large-scale rollout of its 14nm Skylake CPUs 4 weeks ago.
- PC sales expectations have been depressed: IDC estimates shipments fell 11.8% Y/Y in Q2 and 6.7% in Q1, and has forecast they'll drop 8.7% over the whole of 2015 to 281.6M.
- In other Intel news, Digitimes reports Intel, which has been looking to narrow its heavy mobile chip losses, plans to end price discounts (reportedly ~$4 for Windows tablets and ~$8 for Android tablets) for its 22nm Bay Trail Atom CPUs in October. Bay Trail CPUs are said to carry a list price of $12, and 14nm Cherry Trail Atom CPUs (discounted by $2-$3) a list price of $15.
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