Micron and Intel Lead Chip Rebound as Sector Regains Nearly $250 Billion

Chip stocks have rebounded, recovering nearly $250 billion in market value after a sharp sell-off the previous week, even as most stocks on Wall Street continued to decline.

Micron and Intel lead a semiconductor rebound as chip stocks recover nearly $250 bbillion in market value. [Photo: Micron Technology]

A Yahoo Finance basket of 60 chip-related stocks recorded broad gains across memory manufacturers, chip designers and equipment suppliers, according to Jared Blikre’s Oct. 19 report.

Micron Technology and Intel each gained more than 2%, while Sandisk rose nearly 5%. Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia and Western Digital also advanced.

Nearly 90% of the stocks in the basket were higher, according to Yahoo Finance. By contrast, roughly 70% of S&P 500 constituents were falling.

The equal-weight S&P 500 exchange-traded fund also declined even as the main index advanced, suggesting that a relatively small group of companies accounted for much of the broader index’s gains.

The rebound followed a difficult week for memory-chip shares.

Micron and Sandisk had lost approximately 15% and 18%, respectively, during the previous week, according to the report.

Both companies had also been among the beneficiaries of the spring market rally that began after the March lows, when improving hopes for a US-Iran ceasefire helped support risk appetite.

The pattern extended beyond individual chipmakers.

Of the S&P 500’s 100 strongest-performing stocks between March 30 and June 2, the first major leg of the subsequent rally, 61 were rising on Monday.

Among the 100 weakest performers over that earlier period, 84 were falling.

The uneven performance highlighted the narrowness of the market’s latest advance.

Although semiconductor shares helped lift the headline indexes, weakness among many other companies suggested that the rebound had not yet become a broad-based recovery.