Texas Instruments, Intel Sink as China Tariffs Hit US-Made Chips

Bloomberg
11 Apr

Shares of chipmakers with US manufacturing plants fell Friday after China announced new tariffs, targeting semiconductor imports.

Beijing will raise tariffs on all US goods from 84% to 125%, leading the China Semiconductor Industry Association to issue an emergency notice, which stated that customs determines the origin of imports by where chips are manufactured, not the home country of origin.

The news put particular pressure on Texas Instruments Inc. and Intel Corp., which have semiconductor plants located in the US. TI shares fell 8.3%, while On Semi fell 6%, Intel and Microchip sank 5% and GlobalFoundries Inc. dropped 2.9%.

“This is an incredibly uncertain time for chipmakers, and this is certainly not going to help,” said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services. “Anything that hurts semis more than they’ve already been hit is bad for the general market,” he said.

Analog Devices Inc. and Microchip Technology Inc. are also trading lower, along with Skyworks Solutions Inc. and Qorvo Inc., with the latter two notable suppliers to Apple Inc.

The tariffs exclude companies that design chips but don’t manufacture them in the US, resulting in shares of some chipmakers to outperform on the day. Nvidia Corp. gained 2.2%, while US-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. rose 3.4%.

The tariffs will likely be “very good” for TSMC, and also act as a positive for Qualcomm Inc. and Advanced Devices Inc., said Jordan Klein, a tech-sector specialist at Mizuho Securities.

“All my feedback suggests US-China trade deal is ALL THAT MATTERS RIGHT NOW for semi stocks and equity markets recovering,” Klein wrote in a note, with the emphasis included. “Very few I speak with believe a China deal will be struck anytime soon.”

He sees positioning in semis as “very light” given the uncertainty.

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