Wall Street has turned its back on stocks like Affymetrix (AFFX) or Cadence Design Systems (CDNS), two suppliers of essential technology tools whose end users have been belt-tightening. San Jose, Calif.-based Cadence is in turmoil following Wednesday's departure of its chief executive and four lieutenants after their failed bid for rival Mentor Graphics and an unwise sales strategy for Cadence's software-which semiconductor firms use to design new chips. Nevertheless, Cadence is an entrenched leader whose fortunes would rise after a management turnaround and a chip-industry recovery.

As for Affymetrix, the Santa Clara, Calif., company is also cutting costs after announcing Tuesday that it missed September-quarter sales forecasts -- its second quarterly whiff. Shares of the genomics supplier now go for less than half of the company's $9 per share in cash, and less than twice free cash flow. Yet Affymetrix pioneered the manufacture of the "gene chips" used by medical researchers to measure activity levels of genes implicated in diseases and their treatments. Its shares now offer a cheap bet on the adoption of gene chips by doctors seeking to predict which drugs work best on a patient's cancer.

Restructuring, too, are Brooks Automation (BRKS)the semiconductor-factory supplier, and Spherion (SFN) a white-collar staffing company that's digesting several acquisitions.

Briggs & Stratton (BGG), the small-engine maker, is moving manufacturing to China in an effort to widen its profit margins.

Other cheap losers are Penford (PENX), whose industrial-starch factory is coming back on line after the June floods of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Griffon Corp. (GFF), a supplier of garage doors, aircraft electronics and plastic film whose shares have attracted the interest of Goldman Sachs and Barron's Roundtable member Mario Gabelli.

Other cheap losers are Penford (PENX), whose industrial-starch factory is coming back on line after the June floods of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Griffon Corp. (GFF), a supplier of garage doors, aircraft electronics and plastic film whose shares have attracted the interest of Goldman Sachs and Barron's Roundtable member Mario Gabelli.