NEW YORK -- Is the semiconductor industry about to turn up? One Wall Street analyst thinks so.
Wachovia analyst David Wong has upgraded the semiconductor sector to overweight from market weight, saying a recovery could come in the next quarter.
In a research note, Wong said, "As more data become available, allowing us to quantify
the impact of the current downturn on various technology segments, we
grow more hopeful that an inflection point in fundamentals may be
relatively close, a few months away.
"We are hopeful that aggressive action to control
inventory in the electronic supply chain in recent months has paved the
way for some improvement in inventory levels, perhaps beginning in the
June quarter."
For the year, Wachovia forecasts worldwide drops of five to 15% in semiconductor
sales, zero to 5% in PC unit shipments (excluding
netbooks) and zero to 10% in handset units shipments.