Semiconductor stocks remain volatile despite surging sales

Semiconductor stocks remained volatile entering September, despite data demonstrating near record-high sales this summer.

Global semiconductor industry sales totaled $53.1B in July, according to data by the Semiconductor Industry Association. This represented an increase of nearly 3% from the month prior and a gain of almost 19% year over year.

“The global semiconductor market continued to grow substantially on a year-to-year basis in July, and month-to-month sales increased for the fourth consecutive month,” said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “The Americas market experienced particularly strong growth in July, with a year-to-year sales increase of 40.1%.”

The three-month moving average for May, June and July was $51.32B after hitting $47.1B during February, March and April.

July sales were also the second-highest on record for the month, with only July 2022 showing slightly more sales on data stretching back to 2004.

Still, the near record sales of recent months seem to be doing little to quell the volatility of semiconductor stocks over the past few months. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) was down 7.5% by late afternoon trading. It has dropped 19% since July 10. Despite the recent collapse, it remains up 14.5% year to date and is 31% higher than it was one year ago.

A swath of semiconductor stocks were on the move down on Tuesday, including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE:TSM).