This is the Bookings, Billings, and BtB table updated with the recently released data from SEMI for the month of April.
BtB dropped a little from last month, but still well above 1.0 at 1.08 which indicates growth. Bookings was up from March's number of 1103M to 1173M or a growth of 70M. Since January, the Bookings number has grown from 1076M to 1173M, or 97M(9%). While this is growth, it is not nearly what it would be nice to see.
Comparing to the first 4 months of 2012, the number grew from 1188M to 1603M or 415M(35%). This kind of growth in the first 4 months of this year will not continue to support the rise in the SOXM stocks since last November. Just one more indication this growth in SOXM prices is led by the Fed and not growth in Bookings(and therefore Billings).
Since Bookings had an interim bottom 5 months ago, and the trend has been rising since then, Billings has been responding to that growth as it always does. Since January when the Billings were 968M, the April number is 1083M, or a gain of 115M(12%). Last year the Billings rose from 1240M in January to 1459M in April, or 219M(18%).
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