Market Trend

According to the latest survey by WitsView, a research division of TrendForce, MCI index slumped by 117.8 points to 6290.2 points from December 14 to December 27, 2010, indicating that the market turned more negative toward the future condition due to the following: first of all, the weaker-than-expected Black Friday sales resulted in the pessimistic climate in the market toward Christmas sales. Moreover, a major winter storm has affected the US East coast since December 26, which is highly expected to sap the sales from Christmas to the New Year. Second of all, the market initially expected panel prices may bottom out and rebound at year end. Yet, the continued weak end-market sales caused the prices to dip or remain flat, which did not meet the market’s anticipation. Finally, since downstream vendors are aggressive in restocking early for the upcoming Chinese New Year, the concern of oversupply problem in 1H11 may arise if the demand is weaker than expected in 2011. Hence, with these uncertain factors, MCI index plummeted by more than 100 points.