Investigation May Be Unwarranted, But Still Bad for LCD Business

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

By William Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat

We were the first to point out that the price-fixing investigation aimed at LCD panel makers seemed a bit silly. And at least one firm is using our point as a defense, even at the expense of looking a bit inept. Plummeting prices all but prove the industry has not gotten together to reap excess profit. If anything, the industry needs to cut back production to get supply back in balance with demand. However, Goldman Sachs points out that the investigation may hinder them from doing so.
Investment firm doubts in feasibility of production cut plans for panel makers, report says

Panel makers may hesitate over their production cut plans in the first half of next year, as they will face a long-term investigation from justice departments in various countries, according to investment firm Goldman Sachs, as quoted by the Chinese-language Commercial Times. The hesitations may negatively impact the possibility for panel prices to rebound, the investment firm added, according to the paper.

An excellent point.

The author may hold a position in the securities discussed. The author’s current holdings are as follows: Long: FedEx (FDX) put options; Intuit (INTU) put options; Bookham (BKHM; Ballard Power (BLDP); Syntax Brillian (BRLC); CMGI (CMGI); Genentech (DNA); Ion Media Networks (ION); Three Five Systems (TFS); IShares Japan (EWJ); StreetTracks Gold (GLD); Starbucks (SBUX); U.S. Oil Fund (USO); Plantronics (PLT) call options; Short: Ceradyne (CRDN) put options; Dell (DELL) put options; Plantronics (PLT) put options

http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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