uptick in demand

A. If we started to see a broad-based uptick in demand in the enterprise or corporate market for hardware systems, I would begin to feel better.

The cigar market grew rapidly in 1995 and 1996, but by 1997 the established giants of the industry had reacted to the uptick in demand, forcing many underfinanced upstarts to fall by the wayside.

"If anything, the poll suggests an uptick in demand," said Kathryn Nelson, an economist for the Department of Housing and Urban Development who in the early 1980's analyzed a special 1979 Census Bureau survey.

"We need to see an uptick in demand, both in U.S. consumers and in Europe, and that is hard to see coming into the first quarter of the year, which is the seasonally softest quarter.

Japanese bank officials contend that April's financial reform measures did not really enhance the ability of Japanese depositors to shift their savings into dollars and other currencies, but they do concede a marked uptick in demand for foreign-currency accounts since then.

Brokers report that while demand for lesser-quality space in the Madison Square area is still sluggish there has been an impressive uptick in demand for showroom space - a traditional strength for the area - in the last year.

Since Patrick Stewart's and Ralph Fiennes's wildly successful recent Broadway appearances as Prospero and Hamlet, respectively, the National Shakespeare Company's weekly scene class here on West 51st Street has witnessed a notable uptick in demand.

"PC demand is solid; it's seasonally strong, and Intel has been in an extremely strong position to benefit both from the uptick in demand and the end of a pretty severe inventory correction," said Mark Edelstone, an analyst with Morgan Stanley.