Waking up to a bolt from the blue!

Intel, whose stock price had recently skyrocketed, stumbled after releasing its earnings report, with after-hours shares plummeting over 11%! The main issue lies in the fact that its forecasts fell short across the board. The company expects Q1 revenue to be only $12.2 billion, below market expectations of $12.6 billion; EPS is even reported as $0, far behind Wall Street's forecast of $0.08!
It was no small feat that Intel reported an EPS of $0.15 for Q4, significantly higher than market expectations of $0.09, but unfortunately, the guidance disappointed foreign investors who hoped to see signs of stable profitability. Intel explained that the biggest problem isn't demand, but supply, with Q1 being the most constrained by supply issues. Capacity unable to keep up with customer orders has become the biggest bottleneck! Although the company is working hard to ramp up output at its own fabs, it still finds itself in a situation where there are orders but no products to deliver.