Chip Maker Posts Profit

Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of computer-memory chips, had a fiscal first-quarter profit after two money-losing quarters as personal-computer makers bought more of its chips at higher prices. Net income was $341.3 million, or $1.19 a share, for the quarter ended Dec. 2, compared with a loss of $46.2 million, or 19 cents, in the year-earlier period. Sales doubled to $1.58 billion from $793.6 million. Sales of dynamic random access memories, the main memory chips in PCs, are rising as more people buy PCs to get on the Internet. Shares of the Boise, Idaho-based company fell $5 to close at $76 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has risen about 60% so far this year. After the earnings report, the shares traded as high as $88, then fell. Analysts expected the company to earn 85 cents a share during the quarter, the average of estimates gathered by First Call/Thomson Financial.