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Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (78571)	1/15/2018 6:19:35 PM
From: Sam	1 Recommendation Recommended By Return to Sender Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95610

End of a chip boom? Memory chip price drop spooks investors Joyce Lee 5 Min Read SEOUL (Reuters) - After a blistering year-and-a-half long surge, a sudden drop in some memory prices, followed by Samsung Electronics Co’s disappointing profit estimate, is causing jitters among investors who had bet the chip boom would last at least another year. Amid news that the market has started losing some steam - prices of high-end flash memory chips, which are widely used in smartphones, dropped nearly 5 percent in the fourth quarter - some analysts now expect the industry’s growth rate will fall by more than half this year to 30 percent. That led shares in Samsung to dip 7.5 percent last week, while its home rival SK Hynix fell 6.2 percent. But analysts say that there is unlikely to be a sudden crash, and that 2018 should be a relatively stable year for chipmakers. The $122 billion memory chip industry has enjoyed an unprecedented boom since mid-2016, expanding nearly 70 percent in 2017 alone thanks to robust growth of smartphones and cloud services that require more powerful chips that can store more data. Supply also has become more disciplined following years of consolidation that reduced the number of manufacturers to a handful from around 20 in mid-1990s. “Memory chips will likely see a gradual price decline in 2018 if demand remains strong and appetite from servers holds,” said Lee Jae-yun, analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea. But growth of 30 percent is a strong gain in an industry known for volatility, and the market is still on course for its longest ever boom after shrinking 6 percent in 2016. continues at reuters.com

To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (78571)	1/16/2018 10:05:05 AM
From: Kirk ©	1 Recommendation Recommended By Donald Wennerstrom Respond to of 95610

Thanks. Hard to see any big reason for the change as even Lam's earnings show a decline, just smaller. Perhaps it is a general distrust for anyone making "commodity" products as Finisar is not well liked now either, though it has a better PE ratio than MU. MU seems hated as much as energy companies are hated by Taxifornians. Or... if the Bitcoin crash continues... there could be tons of server farms selling parts or orders to cancel. Finisar stock falls after Goldman Sachs downgrades to sell marketwatch.com Shares of Finisar Corp. FNSR, -5.15% fell 3.7% in premarket trading Tuesday after analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded its stock to sell. The analysts, led by Doug Clark, see a "combination of cyclical risks and company specific product exposures that could pressure revenues and margins." While he contends that the company's relationship with Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.01% seems promising, he believes investors are downplaying potential execution risks for the company. In addition, he points to "rising capacity and weaker demand" for optical components, which is causing oversupply in the market. "We believe Finisar could be most at risk given its vertical integration," Clark wrote. Finisar's stock has gained 12% so far in 2018, while the S&P 500 Index SPX, +0.65% is up 4.2%.