Interesting that Intel (INTC) stuck to its full year margin forecast of 51%, but bamboozled shareholders with this atrocious 46.9% 2nd quarter gross margin – numbers that haven’t been seen in a long time. Investors are shooting first and asking questions later by bidding the stock down by 5%.The company explained itself on this evenings conference call, but shares remained lower in late after hours trading.”We expect the impact of lower start-up costs for new manufacturing processes, lower unit costs for microprocessors, and higher unit volumes for microprocessors and chipsets to result in a net gain of 5 points,” Bryant told analysts on a conference call.Intel is forecasting that margins this quarter will bounce all the back to the 52 level.No doubt, as Bear Stearns shares collapse, there will be a market selloff in general tomorrow that will take most everything lower, including the chips.

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