| Chip stocks fall on announcment of downgrades |
| News - Financial News |
|
--(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 11/19/2009 - Technology industry news provided by Financial News USA. By Manasi Phadke Semiconductor stocks fell sharply after BofA Merrill Lynch downgraded several chipmakers, including Intel Corp (NasdaqGS:INTC), citing a modest rise in inventories. Shares of bellwether Intel fell 6 percent to $19.01. Rival AMD (NYSE:AMD) dropped 5 percent to $6.96. Other chipmakers followed suit: Nvidia (NasdaqGS:NVDA) dropped 5 percent to $12.87; Micron (NYSE:MU) was down 7 percent at $6.97; and RF Micro (NasdaqGS:RFMD) was down 5 percent at $4.42. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOXX) was down 4 percent at 309.37. Chip stocks have been rising since the start of the year. Excluding today's losses, Intel has risen 37 percent this year. AMD has risen 239 percent. The brokerage said a correction was likely, given the rising levels of inventory in the supply chain. "While we believe the correction will likely prove short and shallow, we think any hint of a correction in the supply chain could punish (semiconductor) stocks," BofA Merrill wrote in a note to clients. The brokerage downgraded Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, to "neutral" from "buy," and made similar rating changes to rivals LSI Corp (NYSE:LSI), Marvell Technology Group Ltd (NasdaqGS:MRVL), Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE:TXN) and Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding. BofA Merrill also cut its 2010 growth estimate for the sector to 18 percent from 21 percent. Other downgrades included Microchip Technology Inc (NasdaqGS:MCHP), Maxim Integrated Products Inc (NasdaqGS:MXIM), National Semiconductor Corp (NYSE:NSM), Power Integrations Inc (NasdaqGS:POWI) and British microchip designer ARM Holdings Plc (LSE:ARM.L) by a notch each to "underperform. Global semiconductor sales in the third quarter rose 19.7 percent sequentially, the Semiconductor Industry Association said earlier this month and forecast an upbeat full-year sales. " About Financial News USA Financial News USA is a Next Generation Financial Communications firm focused on the distribution of market moving news. Financial News USA has developed leading edge e-publishing tools including programming proprietary RSS feeds and enabling open source press release publishing across its network. Financial News USA has been aggressively expanding its news distribution network by targeting direct feeds to financial news and data providers such as FinancialContent, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), among others. Financial News USA offers a free news feed available online (www.financialnewsusa.com) to websites and financial services looking for content and for individual investors looking to stay informed on the financial markets. Financial News USA and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at www.financialnewsusa.com. 
|