There's still plenty of light but it's cooling and clouds loom...

Andrea Lati

• Order activity for semiconductor equipment tumbled five points in the last week of June as chipmakers continued to grow increasingly cautious about their near-term prospects
• The macroeconomic environment has deteriorated over the last few months as Central Banks tighten the money supply to reign in surging inflation
• Consumer electronics demand in particular has been falling considerably due to high inflation, which is eroding consumers’ purchasing power
• The memory market is finally entering into an inventory correction phase, which will weigh on ASPs and sales in the coming quarters
• As a result, much of the capex will be technology-upgrades related rather than capacity-expansion related
• TechInsights’ Chip Price Performance Index continued to lose ground at a rapid rate
  • DRAM fell
  • NAND tumbled
  • MPUs fell
• Inventories are building up