Broadcom slips on Apple worries as chips mixed going into Q4 results
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Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) shares slipped more than 3% on Tuesday as Wall Street worried about the fallout of a potential loss of business from Apple (AAPL), while the rest of the sector was mixed ahead of fourth-quarter results later this month.
Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers said that based on two work agreements between Apple (AAPL) and Broadcom (AVGO), which were signed in 2019 and 2020, Broadcom (AVGO) has been providing Apple (AAPL) with "a range of specified high-performance wireless components and modules over several years. Raker said the two agreements were estimated to generate about $15B in sales for Broadcom (AVGO).
"From a Broadcom perspective, this likely creates an investor headwind given how significant Apple's revenue contribution is to Broadcom," Rakers said.
On Monday, it was reported Apple (AAPL) has looked into the idea of replacing combination Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips it uses from Broadcom (AVGO) with its own, homemade chipset starting in 2025. The potential move could be a significant negative for Broadcom (AVGO), as the tech giant accounts for roughly 20% of Broadcom's sales. 
Qualcomm (QCOM), which competes with Broadcom (AVGO), saw its shares rise fractionally in mid-day trading.
Returning to the downside, ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ:ON) also fell more than 3% after William Blair downgraded the chip company, citing worries over silicon carbide yields and automotive demand.
"Our research suggests that [ON Semi] continues to struggle with GT Advanced Technologies, and in particular, we believe the companyâs [silicon carbide] yields are half our original assumptions in our [silicon carbide] supply/demand model," analyst Jed Dorsheimer wrote in a research note. 
NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) rose nearly 2% as UBS upgraded the chip company, touting its strong cash position.
"We would expect NXP cash flow management to be strong in a downturn due to its good track record," analyst Francois-Xavier Bouvignies âwrote in a note to clients.
AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) moved in opposite directions, as Bank of America lowered its PC estimates for the first half of 2023 for the pair. 
Analyst Vivek Arya cut his 2023 earnings-per-share estimates by 6% on AMD (AMD) and 9% on Intel (INTC) and pointed to Intel's (INTC) "soft-guiding" for the first-quarter of 2023 as the reason.
Additionally, Intel (INTC) unveiled several new chips on Tuesday, including its 4th-generation Xeon processors, based on the delayed Sapphire Rapids design. The new chips are aimed at helping Intel (INTC) recover the market share in the server space it lost to AMD (AMD).
AMD (AMD) rose slightly in mid-day trading, while Intel (INTC) fell less than 1%.
Nvidia (NVDA), which competes with both AMD (AMD) and Intel (INTC), rose less than 0.5%.
Micron Technology (MU) hugged the flat line as Bank of America continued to point to weakness in its key two markets, dynamic random access and NAND.
Bank of America analyst Simon Woo said that November billings for dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, and NAND were down 54% and 51% year-over-year, respectively, citing data form the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics survey.
Woo added that price weakness has been a "well-known concern," with prices down between 30% and 40% year-over-year, but volume has started to become a drag for both DRAM and NAND, indicating further issues in end markets like smartphones, PCs and servers.
Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) rose nearly 1% as the global foundry giant said December revenue fell 13.5% month-over-month.
The company is scheduled to report complete fourth-quarter results on January 12.
Competitor GlobalFoundries (GFS) rose approximately 0.5% in mid-day trading.
Also seeing modest moves to the upside were Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Monolithic Power Systems (MPWR) and Microchip Technology (MCHP).
In late December, Broadcom (AVGO) was the subject of an "in-depth" investigation by European Union officials into the company's proposed $61B acquisition of VMware.