By William Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat
DRAM prices head for the toilet
Those clever folk at Gartner say the price of 512-Mbit DDR2-based chips has tumbled by 44 per cent this year, already.And average DRAM spot prices were down to $3.67, last week, a 39 per cent since the beginning of 2007, according to the market watchers.
Firms have been pumping out DRAM chips expecting the market to chew them up to run Vista on. The over-supply has sent prices tumbling. Vendors reckon demand will kick in later this year to help prop up prices.
Or, more likely, vendors hope demand will kick in later this year. Furthermore, with all the new supply being added it is unlikely to be absorbed even if demand does pick up. We don’t thing prices will rebound in 2007, although the stocks may bottom this year ahead of the bottom in industry fundamentals.