The last time semiconductor stocks fell for eight straight sessions, Lehman Brothers had been bankrupt for less than a month. That streak ended on Oct. 10, 2008. The second one might have ended last Friday as buyers returned on Monday.
By mid-morning in New York, the PHLX Semiconductor Index was up 3.1%, its strongest session since Sept. 21.
The chip index closed lower every session from Oct. 7 through Oct. 16, losing 15.74%. It finished Friday nearly 24% below its June 22 record.
The chip rebound pushed the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) up 3.1%. The Nasdaq 100, tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), was up 1.4% at last check.
An hour after the open, Nasdaq 100 constituents added as much as $472 billion in market value, according to MarketDash. Chips generated roughly $270 billion of that.
Who's Leading The Chip Rebound?
The following companies are SOXX holdings ranked by dollars added on Monday:
| # | Company | Price | Change | Market Cap Added | Market Cap |
|---|
| 1 | Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) | $217.19 | +1.43% | +$73.7B | $5.23T |
| 2 | Micron Technology Inc. (MU) | $915.88 | +4.22% | +$41.9B | $1.04T |
| 3 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) | $421.26 | +2.10% | +$39.7B | $1.93T |
| 4 | SK Hynix Inc. (SKHY) | $143.96 | +5.47% | +$35.8B | $691B |
| 5 | Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) | $335.87 | +2.17% | +$34.0B | $1.60T |
| 6 | Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) | $545.22 | +3.11% | +$26.9B | $890B |
| 7 | Intel Corp. (INTC) | $94.25 | +4.90% | +$23.3B | $498B |
| 8 | Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) | $276.95 | +4.93% | +$16.3B | $347B |
| 9 | Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) | $424.07 | +3.61% | +$11.7B | $337B |
| 10 | ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) | $1,668.58 | +1.65% | +$10.3B | $634B |
Source: MarketDash Pro, data as of 10:15 a.m. ET
Outside the SOXX, the sharpest percentage-gain moves came from the stocks hit hardest last week.
Sandisk Corp. (SNDK) jumped 7.3%, and Western Digital Corp. (WDC) gained 5.3%.
Across the broader Nasdaq 100, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) added more value than any other stock. It rose about 4%, adding more than $100 billion.
A Financing Scare, Not A Demand Scare
Last week's damage had little to do with chip orders.
Hotter-than-expected inflation revived fears of another Federal Reserve hike.
Then came a round of disappointing data points from the AI labs.
CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV) lost 25% in a week as its junk-bond yields reached 15%, and the question shifted from how much AI infrastructure gets built to who pays for it, and at what rate.
On Monday, Coreweave shares rebounded nearly 3%.
Cantor Fitzgerald: 'Effectively Sold Out'
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst C.J. Muse spent last week at SemiconWest, meeting more than a dozen equipment makers.
He came back with a blunt verdict: "Semi Equipment is effectively sold out." Customers are providing at least eight quarters of visibility, if not longer, Muse added.
That's at least two years of orders.
ASML went further, telling him customers are already placing orders for 2029 and 2030.
So while traders were dumping chip stocks, the companies themselves were looking at full order books.
Muse picked up on the irony, noting "some frustration amongst management teams in the disconnect between valuation and fundamentals."
Most of them, he wrote, are operating "in the strongest backdrop they have ever been a part of."
Intel Gets A Reprieve
Intel Corp. jumped nearly 5% after JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur upgraded it from Underweight to Neutral.
The upgrade ends a bearish call dating to November 2022.
Sur argued that "increasing agentic AI workloads (CPU-intensive) and a very tight supply chain for leading-edge silicon should drive continued positive EPS revisions."
The next test comes Wednesday, when Lam Research and Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) report.
