Intel, Nvidia among chip stocks starting the week with mild gains
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The semiconductor sector continued to see a mixed bag of results in April, with the latest data showing Covid-related lockdowns in China putting some limits on the sector's performance of late.
According to Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya, said the latest information from the Semiconductor Industry Association [SIA] trade group showed that in April, the last full month for which data was available, the Chinese lockdowns created "near-term headwinds" on the chip sector. Arya noted that overall semiconductor sales in April rose 12% from a year ago, and "core" semiconductor sales climbed by 18% from April 2021. However, Arya said that those gains represent the lowest growth levels since December 2020.
But, Arya wasn't completely negative about the chip-industry situation. Arya said China's recent easing up on lockdowns in many of the country's tech-manufacturing regions, "should partially support a bounce back" in semiconductor sales "across all markets," and that total semiconductor sales are still up by 20% this year to date.
"We continue to believe any consumer weakness [in phones and PCs] can be offset by investment [and] growth opportunities in areas such as autos, cloud and enterprise," Arya said.
As trading progressed Monday, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were each up by 1%, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares rose 2%, Applied Materials (AMAT) was up by 1.5%, Qualcomm (QCOM) rose 1.2% and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) edged up by 1%.
Last week, in an assessment of the chip sector, Arya named Nvidia (NVDA) and On Semiconductor (ON) as his top semiconductor picks.