The bears continue to try scaring you into thinking that we’ve seen the best we’re going to see this year and it’s going to be all down hill from here, back to the low 800’s or even 700’s (the bear market bottom) on the S&P. What these perennial pessimists fail to understand is that ...

Barclays' Semi Capital Equipment team is out positive on the space saying they expect the SemiconWest trade show next week will spark renewed interest in semi equipment stocks and they recommend investors increase exposure to the group. Firm looks for growing visibility to double-digit Q/Q order growth through 2009 and that this will lead to strong earnings revisions ahead. They expect growing confidence of increased spending from Samsung and Hynix and that this will be a major catalyst for shares.- Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ:VSEA) is upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $35 price target (prev. $26).The key drivers for the upgrade include: 1) They expect a beat on the Sep Q guide; 2) VSEA has a strong core franchise aided by aggressive cost cuts; 3) Firm[More...]

On June 5th, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) released its annual mid-year forecast projecting worldwide sales of $195.6 billion for 2009, a decline of 21.3% from sales of $248.6 billion in 2008. SIA projects that sales will begin to rebound in 2010, with year-on-year growth of 6.5 percent to $208.3 billion, ...

The major index charts remain in solid rising trends for now. On a fundamental level, I continue to think this rally has been built on TARP money, short covering, and unrealistic hopes on the economy. Although corporate earnings have exceeded estimates, in the end earnings remain poor. Overbought sectors such as ...