What Happened?
A number of stocks jumped in the afternoon session after strong earnings results from industry leader Intel and positive industry-wide forecasts boosted the broader semiconductor sector.
Investors were particularly encouraged by a 22% growth in Intel's data center business, suggesting that the AI-driven demand for hardware is finally translating into a significant recovery for central processing units (CPUs) and advanced packaging services. The rally quickly spread across the broader semiconductor sector, lifting peers like AMD, Qualcomm, and ARM by over 10%. This industry-wide lift reflected a growing market consensus that the "AI trade" was broadening beyond Nvidia's specialized graphics chips to the wider silicon ecosystem.
Adding to the positive sentiment, research firm Omdia significantly raised its semiconductor revenue forecast for 2026, citing a surge in demand for memory and data storage components driven by artificial intelligence.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company Amkor (NASDAQ: AMKR) jumped 8.3%. Is now the time to buy Amkor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Semiconductor Manufacturing company FormFactor (NASDAQ: FORM) jumped 6.4%. Is now the time to buy FormFactor? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Analog Semiconductors company Himax (NASDAQ: HIMX) jumped 10.2%. Is now the time to buy Himax? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Himax (HIMX)
Himax’s shares are very volatile and have had 27 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Himax and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 8 days ago when the stock gained 8.7% on the news that industry bellwether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reported a substantial 58% jump in quarterly profit and forecasted strong future sales, fueled by booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI).
As the world's largest contract chipmaker and a key supplier for tech giants like Apple and Nvidia, TSMC's performance is often seen as a barometer for the entire industry. The company posted a record net profit of $18.1 billion for the first quarter, a 58.3% increase from the previous year. Looking ahead, TSMC attributed its optimistic outlook to the continued surge in demand for advanced computing chips required for AI applications. This robust report signals underlying strength and vigorous demand across the global chip market, lifting sentiment for other semiconductor companies.
Himax is up 40.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $11.95 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Despite the year-to-date gain, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Himax’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $840.37.
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