They put their earnings out early. That confused everyone. The CEO had to address it on the investor call. What did he say? Yeah. So the results were scheduled for today, but the company published them early yesterday or yesterday evening by mistake. They didn't say much, but they kind of blamed it on a technical error. In a statement yesterday and today, the CEO, Christoph NIKKEI, apologized in an analyst call about the results. He said this was very unfortunate. They booked less than half of the orders that analysts estimated in the third quarter. And they also cut guidance for next year. So the results were an unpleasant surprise for analysts. And the market reaction was amplified by the company releasing the results a day earlier than scheduled. And look, they're still sinking even though the CEO has now spoken out. How did he explain the cut to guidance, the bookings dramatically under where analysts thought they would be? So any weakness in small orders, as I

mentioned earlier offs kind of signal struggles for the wider chip sector. They're the market leader for lithography machines in the world. So we can call it a bit of a chip bellwether. So ASML is citing a few delays in that and chip plant constructions around the world as an explanation of why the results were so bad. They also see weakening growth in China for their older machines due to a combination of softening demand and the possibility of future export controls from Washington. So also, keep in mind that Intel is, you know, their biggest customer in the U.S. and it's cutting expenses in a restructuring restructuring push. So that's not helping the the sentiment either. And then you have, you know, delayed factories of Intel in Germany and Poland, while memory chip makers such as Samsung and SK Hynix are also being careful with their spending. So all of these spending cuts are affecting demand for ASML's chip making.

machines. Okay. If you're just joining us here on Bloomberg Technology, the world's most important maker of the machines that make chips had really ugly earnings and an ugly guidance. And what John was just explaining is kind of the back story of earnings that came out early and were a surprise. Looking at two-day chart, 16% decline in Amsterdam yesterday, 5% decline today. And that anxiety, Caroline, was around the world, Asian session, European session, and we've chilled out a bit in the US session. What we're worried about, John, is the investment cycle. What did SML tell us about their own investment plans? So yeah, the Big Miss is obviously a signal that the chip industry's weakness is set to continue, they said well into 2025, and they did say that ASML will slow its short-term investment plans to match the market in today's call. Yeah.

So basically, we can also say that it's important to mention that the chip industry is experiencing some uneven times, right? Like in areas such as artificial intelligence accelerators, companies like NVIDIA can't keep up with the demand, but in other sectors, including automotive and industrial. It's a prolonged slump with customers cutting back orders because they have too much inventory. So some are also mentioned the weakness in these industries.

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