Chip stocks rebound, on pace to snap longest losing streak since 2008
The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose about 3% at midday; Intel gained on a JPMorgan upgrade.
Chip stocks led the market Monday: the PHLX Semiconductor Index rose about 3% by midday, per CNBC's live quote at 12:24 PM ET. If the gains hold, the index would snap its longest losing streak since 2008, per Barron's, which counted Sandisk, Western Digital, Marvell, Intel and Micron among the S&P 500's best performers. The latest Chain, Crude & Chips tracked how long that slide had run.
The rebound is broad inside the sector: nearly 90% of a 60-stock chip basket was higher, recovering close to $250 billion in market value, with Micron and Intel each up more than 2% and Sandisk up nearly 5%, per Yahoo Finance. The bounce follows a brutal week - Micron and Sandisk lost roughly 15% and 18% respectively as memory stocks entered another bear market, per the same tally.
Intel had its own catalyst: JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Neutral from Underweight, per Yahoo Finance. Analyst Harlan Sur cited improved execution under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, demand from AI workloads that lean on CPUs, and a tight supply chain for leading-edge chips, with his 2028 earnings estimate about 15% above consensus; the stock remains about 36% below its June highs, per Yahoo Finance. CoreWeave told a different story - it gave back most of its premarket gain even after Goldman Sachs upgraded it to Buy from Neutral, per Yahoo Finance.
