These gadgets–along with many others, including LED lighting–all need semiconductors. From a long-term perspective, the demand for semiconductors is continuing to grow as the devices become ubiquitous in anything that runs electric current.
The problem with investing in makers of semiconductors is that the group had become overbought with the rest of the stock market. Until yesterday.
Wednesday was an ugly day in semiconductors. Several companies are projecting lower than expected earnings projections for the next quarter and stock prices show the pain.
Cree (CREE), an LED manufacturer, fell about 17%.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD), primarily a manufacturer of radio communication chips, fell about 9%.
Broadcom BRCM (BRCM), which has a deep portfolio of semiconductors for wireless and networking, fell about 3%.
Altera ALTR (ALTR), a major manufacturer of programmable logic devices and application specific integration circuits, fell about 13%.
TriQuint (TQNT), a competitor of RF Micro Devices, fell about 7% in the regular trading hours and an additional 10% after hours when after the market close its projections for the next quarter came less than the consensus estimates…Read more at Forbes