The upturn momentum and hiking prices in spot market has reached peak on October 30, then turned softer, partly due to approaching the month end, orders from Europe and China shrank . However, the DDR 256Mb 32x8 prices only turned down slightly, about 0.45% and 1.35% down for 333MHz and 266MHz respectively. We project the prices will keep at the same level in the coming week. DDR400MHz is up 0.44% with contrast to 333/266 MHz, we observe that DDR400MHz has dominated the market followed the 865 chipset series gain higher market share. Besides, Intel announced CPU price-cut on October 26 which will also increase the demand of high speed memory , DDR400MHz. Now, most DDR transactions are focus on 400MHz, then 333MHz, the least ,266MHz.

SDRAM remains strong in spot market. 256Mb 32x8 133MHz enjoys high premium over DDR of the same configuration. However, we don't consider this will be a motivation for DRAM makers to allocate more capacity to 256Mb 32x8/ 128Mb 16x8 since the SDRAM market share is only 10% of total standard memory and most are for upgrade market. SDRAM 4Mx16 rockets to $3.00 due to shortage, even the makers increase the allocated capacity to SDRAM 4Mx16, it takes 2-3 weeks for output and we project SDRAM 4Mx16 remains current high level at least to mid-November.

It's just the beginning of November. Many traders and channel distributors are in easy mood. Marketers check the prices and try to make forecast for the coming month. Most of them still keep upbeat mood, however, not ready to place big orders yet. Even though, we do expect more market activities later. Not like PC OEM, the barebone market takes shorter time to prepare for the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping season. In the coming month will be the hot season for modules houses to prepare the shipment to barebone markets and most orders will be located in the local markets.