President Obama spoke Friday at the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Pa. — President Obama visited a university research center outside Pittsburgh on Friday to announce a new partnership between the government, industries and leading universities to speed the movement of technological advances to commercial users. The trip was the latest of his increasingly frequent travels to battleground states to showcase administration efforts to create manufacturing jobs.

The latest on President Obama, the new Congress and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.

After touring the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University, a high-technology facility adjacent to a rusted factory symbolic of the area’s industrial past, Mr. Obama said federal agencies would invest more than $500 million to seed the initiative. Of that, $70 million is to go to robotics projects like one he viewed at the center: a boom-box-size robot that inspects sewer pipelines, made by a company started by a Carnegie Mellon professor.

“We’ve launched an all-hands-on-deck effort between our brightest academic minds, some of our boldest business leaders and our most dedicated public servants from science and technology agencies, all with one big goal, and that is a renaissance of American manufacturing,” Mr. Obama said in remarks to about 150 people, including the partnership’s co-chairmen, Andrew N. Liveris, the chief executive of the Dow Chemical Company, and Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Administration officials said the initiative would be overseen by federal agencies already active in public-private partnerships, like the Department of Energy, and would rely on both existing federal financing and money that Mr. Obama has requested from Congress. The new sum, however, reflects a small fraction of what the government already spends on research and innovation, and that has led to some of the mass-market products Mr. Obama cited here, like the Internet, cellphones and GPS navigation devices.

“What we’re trying to do is provide more focus and direction to this spending,” Ron Bloom, Mr. Obama’s adviser on manufacturing policy, told reporters. He called the new Advanced Manufacturing Partnership an “umbrella” for government innovation programs.

Mr. Obama’s new packaging for the government’s existing public-private efforts also allowed him to underscore his commitment to manufacturing jobs as the economy continues to sputter, and in a swing state for presidential elections.

Mr. Obama was careful not to declare complete victory over the economic downturn he inherited. “We’ve made some tough decisions that have turned our economy in a positive direction over the past two years,” he said.

Other universities in the partnership include Georgia Tech, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley. Other manufacturers include Allegheny Technologies, Caterpillar, Corning, Ford, Honeywell, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Northrop Grumman and Procter & Gamble.

By Rex Crum, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Weaker-than-expected earnings drove down Micron Technology Inc.’s shares Friday, but many analysts who follow the memory-chip maker believe it’s too early to write the company off due to opportunities in the tablet computer market.

The shares slumped as much as 14% to a year-to-date low of $7.24, after Boise, Idaho-based Micron /quotes/zigman/75433/quotes/nls/mu MU -13.16% reported a 92% drop in third-quarter earnings late Thursday.

Micron said it earned $75 million, or 7 cents a share, on revenue of $2.14 billion for the three months ended June 2, down from a profit of $939 million, or $1.06 a share, on $2.26 billion in the same period during fiscal 2010.

Wall Street has been bullish for some time about F5 Networks Inc., which makes gear that helps companies manage the traffic load on their digital networks. But some analysts have turned cautious, saying F5's growth in some key markets may be tapering off.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast Micron would earn 16 cents a share on revenue of $2.37 billion.

Micron executives said they were seeing weakness in the PC market, which was dragging down shipments of the company’s DRAM memory chips. Prices of DRAM chips have also gone down, and Micron said it had accumulated more inventory than it traditionally holds.

Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung left his hold, or neutral, rating on Micron’s shares unchanged but cut his price target to $10.50 from $13.

Yeung said in a research note that weak demand in consumer PCs cited by Micron is consistent with checks of chip-industry sales channels. He added that the notebook PC market remains challenging, and as such, “We expect chip stocks to remain under pressure through the upcoming earnings season.”

Kevin Vassily, analyst with Pacific Crest Securities, also lowered his price target, taking it down to $14 from $16 previously. However, Vassily said that despite Micron’s disappointing quarter, he believes the company’s shares are “too cheap to ignore.”

/quotes/zigman/75433/quotes/nls/mu MU 7.32, -1.11, -13.16%
/quotes/zigman/1468249 SOX 393.96, -8.60, -2.14%
Vassily pointed to book value — the total value of a company’s assets that shareholders would theoretically receive if it were liquidated — as an example of how Micron’s stock may represent an buying opportunity for the long term. He estimates Micron’s book value at $9.82 a share.

“With the prospect of no new DRAM industry capacity coming on line, combined with Micron’s ability to capture market share in NAND [flash memory] with its cost-leading manufacturing technology, we see it as an opportune time to consider long positions,” Vassily wrote in a research note.

Vassily also has an outperform rating on Micron’s stock.

/quotes/zigman/75433/quotes/nls/mu Rex Crum is a reporter for MarketWatch in San Francisco.

The use of video technology could become mandatory in all international cricket matches after the issue is discussed at the International Cricket Council's annual conference in Hong Kong next week.

The meeting is also set to formally reverse a decision to exclude smaller nations from the World Cup.

India is the only test-playing nation which is against the use of the Decision Review System (DRS), with the other nine countries in favour of using video reviews for close decisions.

The likes of England, Australia and South Africa's home broadcasters have the technology to enable DRS to be used, but it would be more difficult for some Asian nations to afford the required technology. India has said it is not convinced the DRS system is completely accurate.

The ICC's cricket committee has recommended that DRS should be used in all tests as well as one-day internationals and Twenty20 series. There are a maximum of two unsuccessful reviews per innings in a test match and the committee has recommended one unsuccessful review per innings in ODIs and T20s.

Other items on the agenda include a proposal to further study the introduction of day/night tests and whether a captain should be suspended after two slow over-rate breaches rather than the current three offences.

The ICC will also consider changes in the format of 50-over cricket to revive the one-day game, which has been largely superseded by Twenty20.

One suggestion is to use two balls in each innings - one from each end. Presently the ball is replaced after 34 overs. The other suggestion is that teams could take batting and bowling powerplays from the 16th to 40th overs.

Other suggestions include removing limits on the maximum number of overs per bowler, no compulsory close-catchers, fielding restrictions in non-powerplay overs and the number of bouncers per over to be increased from one to two.

The ICC has suggested these experiments should be introduced in domestic cricket before being tried in international games.

The number of teams in the next 50-over World Cup, in 2015, is the other item on the agenda. ICC president Sharad Pawar said in April that the 10-team format should be reviewed.

"The president decided to reconsider it after the board had decided in Mumbai that it would be a full members-only World Cup which understandably didn't go down well," ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

On top of the agenda at the full ICC council meeting is a constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring free elections of member boards and avoiding undue government interference in the administration of cricket - in line with the regulations of other major sporting bodies.

In countries like Pakistan the chairman of the cricket board is directly appointed by the president.

Another possible constitutional amendment is on the process for electing the ICC president.

"The rotation system seems to be out of favor and there is a view from amongst the board that the best person should be nominated as the president," Lorgat said.

Pakistan and Bangladesh are likely to resist this move, as it's their turn to nominate president and vice president.

The meeting begins in Hong Kong on Sunday with the ICC chief executives' committee meeting on June 26-27, followed by the ICC executive board on June 28-29 before full council meets on June 30.

- AP

June 24, 2011, 1:52 PM EDT By Michael P. Regan and Rita Nazareth

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks and the euro retreated for a third day as concern about Italian banks kept Europe’s debt crisis in focus and Oracle Corp. led technology shares lower. Italian, Irish and Spanish bonds slid, while 10-year U.S. Treasuries rose to a 2011 high.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.9 percent to 1,271.66 at 1:29 p.m. in New York and is little changed for the week. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.1 percent, erasing a 1.2 percent rally, and the euro sank 0.5 percent to $1.4190. Italy’s 10-year yields climbed to a record relative to German rates as the cost to protect European sovereign debt reached a record. Energy products and hogs led commodities lower.

Technology shares fell the most among 10 groups in the S&P 500 after Oracle’s unexpected drop in hardware sales, while banks were the biggest drag in Europe after Moody’s Investors Service said it may downgrade 13 Italian lenders. Declines in the two groups overshadowed faster-than-forecast growth in U.S. durable-goods orders and European leaders’ pledge to support Greece if the nation approves austerity measures.

“There’s anxiety in the market,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist in Florham Park, New Jersey, at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which has $115 billion in client assets. “You’re going to go from headline to headline. When you look at Europe, you have Greece, you have the Italian banks. This theme is going to be playing for a while. In the U.S., the economic figures are consistent with an anemic recovery.”

Retreat Since April

The S&P 500 has lost more than 6 percent from an almost three-year high on April 29, and Treasury yields have decreased to their lows for the year, as investors fixated on Europe’s debt crisis, disappointing economic data and the end of the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion bond purchase program this month. The retreat has threatened the S&P 500’s advance for the year, leaving it up less than 2 percent in 2011. The S&P GSCI Index of commodities has lost 15 percent since April 29.

Government data today showed the U.S. economy grew at a 1.9 percent pace in the first quarter, marking the start of what the Fed projects is a temporary slowdown in the recovery. Orders for durable goods climbed 1.9 percent in May, Commerce Department data showed, topping the 1.5 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Fed Watch

Fed policy makers lowered their economic growth forecasts this week and said they will complete a second round of bond purchases at the end of the month as planned. While their statement did not address a potential third round of so-called quantitative easing, known as “QE3” among investors, Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in a press conference on June 22 that the central bank could take additional stimulus action if economic conditions warranted.

“The question is, would adding more do much more?” Fed Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “Would adding more liquidity do much more? Would bringing rates down even further do much more? The 2-year note is within four basis points of an all-time low, money can’t get much cheaper than it currently is.”

Two-year yields slipped one basis point to 0.33 percent today compared with a low of 0.31 percent in November. Ten-year yields lost as much as 4 basis points to 2.87 percent today.

Oracle slumped 3.7 percent to lead losses in 70 of 74 technology companies in the S&P 500. Micron Technology Inc., the largest U.S. maker of computer-memory chips, sank 12 percent after third-quarter sales and profit fell short of analysts’ estimates. Accenture Plc, the world’s second-largest technology- consulting company, advanced 2.2 percent after raising its forecasts.

Eight-Week Slump

The Stoxx 600 has fallen for eight straight weeks the longest stretch of declines since 1998. The retreat has dragged its valuation to 12.5 times the reported earnings of its companies, the cheapest since 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Greek 10-year bond yields fell for a third day this week, down 10 basis points at 16.78 percent, compared with a record of almost 18 percent on June 16. EU leaders vowed to stave off a Greek default as long as Prime Minister George Papandreou pushes through a 78 billion euro package of budget cuts next week, pledging to do whatever it takes to stabilize the euro economy.

‘New Program’

“We have agreed that there will be a new program for Greece,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels today. “This is an important decision that says once again we will do everything to stabilize the euro overall.”

Italy’s benchmark FTSE MIB Index slid 1.6 percent to the lowest level on a closing basis since Nov. 30. UniCredit SpA, the nation’s biggest bank, led losses with a 5.5 percent slump.

Moody’s said yesterday it may downgrade Italian lenders because they would be vulnerable if the government’s credit rating is cut. The ratings company said last week Italy’s credit ratings may be reduced because of slowing economic growth and the potential for the sovereign crisis to drive the country’s borrowing costs higher.

The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of default swaps on 15 governments climbed 4.1 basis points to a mid-price of 243. The yield premium, or spread, investors demand to hold Italy 10-year government bonds instead of benchmark German bunds increased seven basis points to a euro-era record of 214 basis points, or 2.14 percentage points. Spain’s 10-year yield increased five basis points to 5.68 percent and Ireland’s was up 18 basis points to 11.97 percent.

Debt Risk

The cost to protect U.S. corporate bonds from default rose for a third day to the highest in more than a week as investor concern mounted that Europe’s debt crisis will slow the global economic recovery. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, increased 1.7 basis points to a mid-price of 100.28 basis points, according to index administrator Markit Group Ltd.

Gasoline, Brent crude and corn lost more than 1.5 percent to lead losses in 18 of 24 commodities in the S&P GSCI. New York-traded copper rose 1.4 percent to $4.1125 a pound, trimming this week’s drop, after the increase in durable goods orders revived prospects for manufacturing and metals demand.

Oil declined to four-month lows of $90.38 a barrel in New York and $104.73 for Brent in London, extending yesterday’s losses triggered by the International Energy Agency plan to release of 60 million barrels.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 1 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.2 percent, the most in four months. Premier Wen Jiabao said in an opinion piece in the Financial Times that “the overall price level is within a controllable range and is expected to drop steadily.”

South Korea’s Kospi Index increased 1.7 percent and India’s Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index added 2.9 percent after yesterday’s decline in crude oil prices. Turkey’s ISE National 100 Index climbed 0.8 percent and Russia’s Micex Index jumped 1.6 percent.

--With assistance from Stephen Kirkland in London and Charlie Zuza in New York. Editors: Michael Regan, Nick Baker

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Regan in New York at mregan12@bloomberg.net; Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net

The Gollum of the Semiconductors, Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE:MU) shares have erased all their gains for 2011.

The stock is down 14% today and trading around $7.25 on very heavy volume.

There are a few analysts who still have hope in the company but the Masters are going to hold out for a new 52-week low before buying.

GOLDMAN SAYS SELL
You can't beat Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), and the firm has a Sell rating on Micron (MU) along with a $7 target price. 

(http://www.streetinsider.com) Goldman Sachs estimates for the quarter were 10 percent high in revenue and $0.17 above its adjusted EPS results. As a result of the weak quarter and lower revenue and margins, the firm is cutting its CY11 and CY12 EPS estimates from $0.65 and $0.80 to $0.20 and $0.60. It is also lowering its CY11 revenue and CY12 from $9.42 billion and $10.43 billion to $8.85 billion and $9.8 billion. To go in-line with its new estimates, Goldman is lowering its price target by $0.50 to $7 while maintaining its Sell rating.

The firm forecasts DRAM cash costs at the leading edge are about $0.50/Gb, compared to current spot pricing of about $0.80/Gb and contract pricing of about $1.00/Gb.

An analyst at Goldman Sachs commented, "We expect DRAM prices to come under pressure in Q3 2011, given likely below-seasonal PC demand and relatively high levels of DRAM inventory at customers. Importantly, we think the consensus view that tangible book value should be a floor for the stock is likely to be challenged, given the potential for near-term operating losses, given the weak pricing environment." (source: http://www.streetinsider.com)

MASTERY Bottom line: 

We are thinking about buying on the dip, but not until shares get back to the $6 level.

Let the fire sale and downgrades commence today.  There's plenty of time to build a position in Micron (MU), be patient.

By Laura MacInnis

PITTSBURGH | Fri Jun 24, 2011 11:35pm IST

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday launched an initiative to develop new U.S. manufacturing jobs by teaming government up with companies and universities to invest more than $500 million in advanced technologies.

Obama, who must ease high U.S. unemployment to be confident of winning a second White House term in elections next year, visited Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to launch the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, aimed at fostering a new generation of U.S.-made high-technology products.

"This partnership is about new cutting edge ideas to create new jobs, spark new breakthroughs, reinvigorate American manufacturing today. Right now," the Democratic president told an audience of around 200 in a robotics laboratory.

The initiative does not involve new government spending and Obama, who is fighting Republicans to raise the U.S. borrowing limit, emphasized the need to curb the country's deficit and debt, while investing in its future.

"If we want a robust growing economy we need a robust growing manufacturing sector," he said. "I ran for president to get us back to where we need to be. I have a larger vision for America."

The White House says major new technologies in the past were commercialized into vast industries with the help of government-university-company partnerships, including telephones, jet engines and the Internet.

It hopes for similar achievements by speeding development of new technologies such as next-generation robotics, advanced composite materials and bio-manufacturing.

The program will leverage existing federal funds and future federal departmental budgets to invest with industry some $300 million to jump-start domestic manufacturing capabilities seen as critical to U.S. national security. Initial public-private investment areas include batteries, composites, metal fabrication, biotechnology and alternative energy.

STRUGGLING ECONOMY

Obama is rolling out the initiative as the U.S. unemployment rate remains at a stubbornly high 9.1 percent and initial claims for state unemployment benefits are ticking higher after months of decline.

The U.S. economy is struggling to gain traction against high energy prices, a still-depressed housing market, tight credit conditions and headwinds from Europe's debt crisis.

Until recently, one of the economy's brightest spots had been manufacturing, which had powered the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession, the country's longest and deepest since the 1930s. Manufacturers have added about 129,000 jobs so far this year.

But manufacturing no longer has a dominant role in the U.S. economy, accounting for about 11.7 percent of gross domestic product and roughly 9 percent of total employment.

"We have not run out of stuff to make. We've just got to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector so it leads the world like it always has," Obama said. "We've launched an all-hands-on-deck effort."

The Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, to be led by Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N) Chairman Andrew Liveris and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Susan Hockfield, also aims to invest more than $100 million to help enable U.S. companies to discover, develop, manufacture and deploy advanced materials twice as fast as they are capable of today.

A further $70 million will be made available to support research into next-generation robots -- those that can work alongside human operators on the factory floor, in hospitals, on battlefields and in space.

The Department of Energy will leverage existing funds and future budgets with an initial goal of investing $120 million to develop manufacturing and processes to reduce energy consumption in manufacturing.

Other manufacturers initially involved in the program will be Allegheny Technologies Inc (ATI.N), Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N), Corning Inc (GLW.N), Honeywell (HON.N), Intel (INTC.O), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ.N), Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), Procter and Gamble (PG.N), and Stryker Corp (SYK.N).

The universities initially involved in the program will be MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.

(Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani; writing by David Lawder; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

PLANO, Texas, Jun 24, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Diodes Incorporated /quotes/zigman/71078/quotes/nls/diod DIOD -1.87% , a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today announced an agreement to invest in Eris Technology Corporation, a publicly traded company listed as an Emerging Stock on the Taiwan OTC Exchange (TWO) that provides design, manufacturing and after-market services for diode products.

Eris has announced that it will offer to its shareholders and employees up to 10 million shares of common stock at NT$39 per share to raise NT$390 million (approximately US $14 million). Diodes has agreed to purchase any shares not purchased by Eris' shareholders and employees and Eris' founders have agreed to sell Diodes any shares necessary to ensure that Diodes will obtain a minimum of 8 million shares, which represents an approximately 24 percent ownership in Eris after the capital increase.

Commenting on the investment Dr. Keh-Shew Lu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diodes, stated, "Eris is currently a supplier of assembly/test services to Diodes and we are pleased to be able to expand that relationship. This investment will allow Eris to expand their capacity in specific packages as a complement to Diodes' internal capability."

About Eris Technology Corporation

Eris Technology Corporation was established in August 1995. Eris is an ODM (original design manufacturer) providing a variety of support services to design, manufacturing, and after-marketing services for diode products, including schottky diodes, TVS diodes, zener diodes, bridge diodes, wafers, and LEDs. Eris serves a broad base of global and regional OEM customers. For more information visit the Eris website at http://www.eris.com.tw/ .

About Diodes Incorporated

Diodes Incorporated /quotes/zigman/71078/quotes/nls/diod DIOD -1.87% , a Standard and Poor's SmallCap 600 and Russell 3000 Index company, is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic, and analog semiconductor markets. Diodes serves the consumer electronics, computing, communications, industrial, and automotive markets. Diodes' products include diodes, rectifiers, transistors, MOSFETs, protection devices, functional specific arrays, single gate logic, amplifiers and comparators, Hall-effect and temperature sensors; power management devices, including LED drivers, DC-DC switching and linear voltage regulators, and voltage references along with special function devices, such as USB power switches, load switches, voltage supervisors, and motor controllers. The Company's corporate headquarters, logistics center, and Americas' sales office are located in Plano, Texas. Design, marketing, and engineering centers are located in Plano; San Jose, California; Taipei, Taiwan; Manchester, England; and Neuhaus, Germany. The Company's wafer fabrication facilities are located in Kansas City, Missouri and Manchester, with two manufacturing facilities located in Shanghai, China, another in Neuhaus, and a joint venture facility located in Chengdu, China. Additional engineering, sales, warehouse, and logistics offices are located in Taipei; Hong Kong; Manchester; and Munich, Germany; with support offices located throughout the world. For further information, including SEC filings, visit the Company's website at http://www.diodes.com .

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth above that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such statements include statements regarding Diodes will obtain a minimum of 8 million shares, which represents an approximately 24 percent ownership in Eris after the capital increase; and this investment will allow Eris to expand their capacity in specific packages as a complement to Diodes' internal capability. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as: we may not be able to maintain our current growth strategy or continue to maintain our current performance, costs and loadings in our manufacturing facilities; risks of domestic and foreign operations, including excessive operation costs, labor shortages and our joint venture prospects; unfavorable currency exchange rates; our future guidance may be incorrect; the global economic weakness may be more severe or last longer than we currently anticipated; and other information detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Recent news releases, annual reports and SEC filings are available at the Company's website: http://www.diodes.com . Written requests may be sent directly to the Company, or they may be e-mailed to: diodes-fin@diodes.com.

SOURCE: Diodes Incorporated

Company Contact: Diodes Incorporated Laura Mehrl Director of Investor Relations P: 972-385-4492 E: laura_mehrl@diodes.com or Investor Relations Contact: Shelton Group Leanne Sievers EVP, Investor Relations P: 949-224-3874 E: lsievers@sheltongroup.com Copyright Business Wire 2011