SOXX today was punished for no apparent reason. This news of Oct BTB rising should be more than enough to propel all semi/hardware stocks for the next few days... AMAT, KLAC, LRCX, NVLS, etc.
quote.bloomberg.com
U.S. Semiconductor Equipment October Book-to-Bill Ratio Rises
U.S. Semiconductor Equipment October Book-to-Bill Ratio Rises
Mountain View, California, Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International book-to-bill
ratio, which gauges demand for chip-equipment tools made in the
U.S., rose for the first time in seven months to 1.09 in October.
A ratio of 1.09 means that U.S. semiconductor-equipment
makers took $109 of orders for every $100 of shipments. The
August ratio from Mountain View, California-based SEMI was
revised to 1.07 from 1.08. A ratio above 1 indicates a growing
market.
The chip industry's recovery from its 1998 decline had
seemed to be slowing. After orders surged in the first half of
this year, the book-to-bill ratio slipped for the last six
consecutive months. Today's figures seem to suggest growth is
increasing again.
''The October numbers show that equipment orders are back on
track for full recovery,'' SEMI President Stanley Myers said in a
statement.
Average monthly orders, or bookings, rose 6 percent in
October to $1.59 billion from September's $1.50 billion and more
than doubled over October 1998's $638 million. Myers said the
industry is picking up globally as economic and industry
forecasts for next year spur growth in capital spending.
Sales rose 4 percent to $1.47 billion from $1.41 billion in
September, 72 percent above figures from a year ago.
Applied Materials Inc., Lam Research Corp., Novellus Systems
Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corp. are the largest makers of equipment
used to manufacture chips. Teradyne Inc., another big chip-
equipment company, makes semiconductor-testing equipment.
Applied Materials fell 3 15/16 to 103 5/16 today. Lam rose
2 1/4 to 80 1/2. Novellus fell 4 1/16 to 86 7/16. KLA fell
1 13/16 to 90 7/16. Teradyne fell 2 1/16 to 46 7/16.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which includes shares
of Applied, Novellus, Teradyne and KLA among 16 stocks, fell
14.86 to 639.28 today.
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