LCD-Panel Makers Go for Gold

TOKYO -- If you make or sell TV sets, an Olympic year is a bruising competition to get the sets sold in time for the Games. But if you make the flat-glass screens through which legions of viewers will watch the Olympics, it's a gold-medal moment.

Even as the Olympics dash squeezes manufacturers and retailers to take a profit hit and cut prices in a crowded market, Japanese producers of glass panels for liquid-crystal-display screens are set for a surge in demand that analysts say isn't reflected in their stock prices. The glass makers are also favored by a trend ...