Micron Stock (NASDAQ:MU)
On Monday, the Chinese government said it will initiate a cyber security examination of Micron Technologies (NASDAQ:MU), the semiconductor market leader.
The Cyberspace Administration of China will investigate Micron (MU) goods marketed nationwide, as first disclosed on Friday. The government has not specified which items would be examined, just that it is conducting these investigations to protect the supply chain and avoid introducing concealed dangers and threats to national security.
This comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington, especially over China’s progress in the semiconductor sector, continue to escalate.
Micron stock dropped by 2.1% to $59.01 after the announcement.
After receiving an upgrade from Bernstein, shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) increased by 0.6%, although off their session highs.
Analyst Stacy Rasgon stated in a letter to investors, “although things still appear awful, strategically, we feel the medium-term set-up is, finally, improving a little,” since the company’s difficulties are recognized. The numbers (for the first time in a while) may be low enough to stand.
Rasgon said that the January downgrade of AMD was “obviously erroneous” from a stock viewpoint, given the fast run since then, but that the reasons for the reduction, including worse margins, still persisted.
AMD Shares dropped by more than 2% at midday, while Nvidia, a competitor to both Intel and AMD, dropped by 0.5%.
As Citi downgraded Entegris, Wolfspeed (NYSE:WOLF), and FormFactor, all three stocks plummeted by at least 3%.
In a statement released in tandem with the downgrade, Citi underlined its preference for equipment and components connected to semiconductors, naming Applied Materials, Lam Research, Advanced Energy Industries, and Coherent as its top selections in each category.
Lam Research and Advanced Energy Industries fell more than 2%, while Applied Materials and Coherent fell over 1%.
Despite a few Wall Street analysts saying that demand for Apple’s iPhones remains strong despite the faltering global economy, shares of both Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo plummeted by roughly 1.5%.
After disclosing a network security problem that has disrupted some of its business activities and allowed some unauthorized third parties access to some of its data, shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) fell by approximately 1.5%.
Competitor Seagate fell in unison with Western Digital.
Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductor were among the few exceptions on Monday, falling by 2%. Broadcom dropped a little before the company’s annual shareholder meeting started.
Micron stock posted earnings for the fiscal second quarter last week, and sales were down year over year.
Featured Image: Megapixl © Michaelvi
Author Shariq Khan 
