Applied Materials Reports.... Bookings Headed South

The much anticipated Applied Materials quarterly earnings report was released after the close of today's trading session. The earnings conference call is underway and I plan to have an update of this in the Model Portfolio comments to be delivered this evening. First impressions: Bookings for the next quarter are expected to be off 35% - that's quite a bit more than anticipated. Most of the reports I've read were expecting a 15% to 20% fall in bookings. Revenues are estimated to be down 20% to 23%. That's also larger than expected. More comments to be posted shortly......