Ditch, the SOX briefly popped above its 200 day MA last week, and ended the week a hair below.
AMAT, considered the group leader, has a similar chart to the SOX, piercing through but ending the week under resistance.
From today's Barons:
<Applied Materials, one of the class acts in semiconductor equipment, owned up to a lugubrious fourth quarter, with sales dropping 57%; new orders were conspicuous by their paucity and income from ongoing businesses fell a tidy 97%. That the company wasn't expecting an instant rebound, our colleague Jaye Scholl points out with her laser-like logic, was implicit in its announcing a sizable number of layoffs. Usually, you don't can people if you expect a big surge even six months down the road.
And, in case you haven't been watching, Applied's customers, notably those who make DRAMS, have seen the modest uptick in prices reverse, a circumstance that doesn't exactly square with the optimism the Street has been exuding about the chip business.>
ATML's chart follows a similar pattern, differing only in lacking strengh to tackle the 200 day MA. Currently the chart features a triangulation of MAs with low volume, indicating that a strong move in one direction is coming. There's a gap at 7 going back to October that serves as bottom target and the 200 day MA at 10.05 is the overhead resistance.
Sergio |
