How liquid is the crystal display market?
As I mentioned earlier, one of the biggest money makers for Corning is its business selling ultra-thin glass to the world’s LCD TV panel-makers. Corning dominates this market, selling “almost three times the amount of glass as our nearest competitor.” Now, with the credit markets melting down around us, fewer people buying houses and sometimes losing the ones they have, pundits are predicting a fall in sales of flat-screen TVs — which, as a rule, are installed in houses (and, more seriously, which often have hefty price tags offset with generous financing arrangements offered by downstream retailers such as Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) and Circuit City (NYSE: CC)). Weeks put that worry to rest, reassuring us that “the supply chain remains healthy,” “inventory levels at … the panel makers are within normal levels,” and that he sees “no evidence of issues in other parts of the supply chain.” Furthermore, Weeks observed that “none of the major U.S. retailers have changed their financing incent
