Corning's Reassuring Words

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Not yet a week has passed since Corning (NYSE: GLW) last spun glass into gold, and here it comes again with further good news.

Last week, the stock benefited when CAPS All-Star Jefferies declared it a "buy." This morning, the company itself reiterated its sales and earnings projections, last expressed back in November. We wrote about the raised guidance back then, when Corning predicted $0.38 to $0.40 per share in "adjusted" earnings (adjusted to exclude the effect of fluctuations in its stock price, on the value of its contribution to an asbestos-litigation settlement fund) and sales of $1.53 billion to $1.56 billion.

No news, or some news?
So is this a case of "no news is good news," or is there more of a takeaway from today's pat on the head and whispers of reassurance emanating from Corning HQ? I think the latter. Its strong Q2 performance notwithstanding, investors were spooked yesterday when Bear Stearnsdowngraded Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) on predictions of a slowdown in consumer-electronics purchases. Yesterday's sad performance out of Circuit City (NYSE: CC) probably didn't help matters.

But as Bear mentioned in its downgrade, the problem with these retailers (if, that is, a problem even emerges at Best Buy) isn't that the consumers are going to stop buying LCD TV sets. It's that with their wallets depleted, consumers might choose to buy the sets from discount stores such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) or Costco (Nasdaq: COST).

Foolish takeaway
From Corning's perspective, though, it doesn't matter much which big box you wander into to buy that LCD TV. What matters is that with Corning's market share topping 50%, chances are good that the set you buy will come with Corning's glass installed. Long story short, Corning's going to do just fine, as long as people keep buying the things somewhere.