Qualcomm slump leads chips decline as AMD tries to rebound after weak guidance
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Semiconductor stocks were largely lower on Thursday as investors worried about weak guidance from some of the industry's largest companies.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares fell more than 6% after the San Diego-based chipmaker issued a weak outlook and the company's CEO said the smartphone market was "challenging."
Looking to the third-quarter, Qualcomm (QCOM) said it expects adjusted earnings to be between $1.70 and $1.90 a share, on revenue between $8.1B and $8.9B. Wall Street analysts had previously forecast Qualcomm (QCOM) to earn $2.13 a share on sales of $9.12B.
Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Cristiano Amon blamed the weakness in part on a "challenging" smartphone market, but that the company was committed to its diversification strategy.
During its fiscal second quarter, Qualcomm (QCOM) reported earnings, excluding one-time items, of $2.15 a share, on revenue of $9.27B, including $7.9B from its QCT division. Wall Street analysts had expected the company to earn $2.16 a share, excluding one-time items, on $9.12B in revenue.
Qualcomm (QCOM) has said it is working to broaden its customer base, and that it expects to significantly reduce its business with Apple (AAPL) through the rest of this year.
AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) shares rose around 1% on Thursday, a day after the company's weak forecast led to a near 10% tumble in the stock.
AMD competitor Intel (INTC) rose nearly 3% on Thursday, while Nvidia (NVDA) slipped around 1%.
Qorvo (NASDAQ:QRVO), which is heavily tied to Apple (AAPL), gave up most of its early morning gains and rose 0.5% as Wall Street analysts saw positives from the company's fourth-quarter results and guidance.
Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya, who has an underperform rating on Qorvo (QRVO), noted the implied second-half revenue guidance was 8% above estimates, perhaps due to "incremental" content win from Apple (AAPL) and the continued clearing of channel inventory.
Synaptics (NASDAQ:SYNA) plunged more than 17% after the company offered weaker-than-expected guidance for its upcoming fourth quarter.
Looking ahead, Synaptics (SYNA) said it expects sales to be between $210M and $240M, well below the $328.32M analysts were expecting.
Infineon (OTCQX:IFNNY) shares fell more than 2.5% even as the German semiconductor company raised its full-year guidance, noting strong demand in energy infrastructure and renewable energy.
The company now expects full-year revenue to be 16.2Bâ¬, plus or minus 300Mâ¬, up from the previous estimate of 15.5Bâ¬. Analysts expect 16.1Bâ¬ in full-year sales. 
Other semiconductor stocks were largely lower in mid-day trading, including Texas Instruments (TXN), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) and Micron Technology (MU).
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