Medvedev told Chancellor Angela Merkel at their meeting in Sochi that stronger ties could 'help our economies and people overcome the consequences of this heavy crisis and come out of it even stronger'.  Merkel announced that she would welcome Russian investments in Opel, as well as in chipmakers Infineon and Qimonda and the Wadan shipyard.  The insolvent shipbuilder is reportedly close to being bought by Russian investor Igor Yusufov.  Services conglomerate Sistema has denied media reports that it is negotiating with German chipmaker Infineon about taking an equity stake in the company.  Vladimir Putin has instructed politicians that the budget deficit must be less than 7.5% next year.  He has also put a price tag on regional housing ( a maximum of $950 per square meter.)  Canadian engineering group SNC-Lavalin has announced its purchase of ...

Zacks senior semiconductor industry analyst Abdul Saleh was on hand recently to give us his updated viewpoint of this sector. He even told us what his top three semi Buy-recommended stocks are at this time.

What’s new in the semiconductor industry lately?

With a slowdown in the domestic economy, the chip companies are looking globally -- notably Russia, India, China and South America -- for growth, where the demand for technology is growing at a healthy 30-40% clip. In fact, Intel’s (INTC) CEO Craig Barrett was interviewed recently on this subject and reiterated this viewpoint.

The Street has not bought this thesis as yet, but if the numbers turn out to be what the companies are projecting, it may be positive for investors. Also, we got some exposure with the media in this sector -- I, myself did an IBD interview on Atheros (ATHR) recently -- and our

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Zacks senior semiconductor industry analyst Abdul Saleh was on hand recently to give us his updated viewpoint of this sector. He even told us what his top three semi Buy-recommended stocks are at this time.

What’s new in the semiconductor industry lately?

< ?DART(15);?> With a slowdown in the domestic economy, the chip companies are looking globally -- notably Russia, India, China and South America -- for growth, where the demand for technology is growing at a healthy 30-40% clip. In fact, Intel’s (

...

Zacks senior semiconductor industry analyst Abdul Saleh was on hand recently to give us his updated viewpoint of this sector. He even told us what his top three semi Buy-recommended stocks are at this time.

What’s new in the semiconductor industry lately?

With a slowdown in the domestic economy, the chip companies are looking globally -- notably Russia, India, China and South America -- for growth, where the demand for technology is growing at a healthy 30-40% clip. In fact, Intel’s (INTC) CEO Craig Barrett was interviewed recently on this subject and reiterated this viewpoint.

The Street has not bought this thesis as yet, but if the numbers turn out to be what the companies are projecting, it may be positive for investors. Also, we got some exposure with the media in this sector -- I, myself did an IBD interview on Atheros (ATHR) recently -- and our

...

On Friday, Rebecca Darst said options traders are looking at chips. What reason(s) did she cite?

Here’s the video.  It seems to me like she mentions Infineon’s (IFX) guidance cut, a recent Barron’s article and TI’s (TXN - Annual Report) lukewarm share price. In other words, all of the above.

Infineon doesn’t show up on my screens and Texas Instruments ranks pretty neutrally. I personally think the semiconductor industry should do well, and own the Semiconductor HOLDRs (SMH) and Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM.PK) - though the latter position is a little stub spun out from the SMH when the company was delisted.

 

 

 

Disclosure: William Trent has a long position in SMH.

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