See the highlighted paragraph. Global Foundries having trouble with 14nm.
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Tech Today: Amazon Mobile Commerce Surges, Short Interest Moves, Apple Chip Jockeying
By Tiernan Ray
Here are some things going on today in your world of tech:
The Nasdaq Composite is up half a percent at 4,800.07 after a day off from trading. Gainers include Apple (AAPL), up 85 cents, or 0.8%, at $112.86; Facebook (FB) up 7 cents at $80.84; and Intel (INTC) up 18 cents, half a percent, at $37.62.
R.W. Baird’s Colin Sebastian, reiterating an Outperform rating on shares of Amazon.com (AMZN), raised his estimate for the company’s membership in its “Prime” program to more than 30 million paying members, citing Amazon’s own press release this morning stating it had a record holiday season, with more than ten million people joining Prime.
Amazon also reported that “Nearly 60 percent of Amazon.com customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday.”
Amazon shares are up $3.56, or 1%, at $306.59.
Speaking of online commerce, IBM (IBM) released eta it collected for retailers for Christmas Day that reveal “strong mobile sales,” with all online sales up 8.3% but mobile traffic up 57%, accounting for 34.8% of total sales, up from 20.4% last year. That means desktop computers were still 65% of all online sales, leading IBM to assert ” The Desktop is Not Dead.”
Shares of 3-D printing technology maker 3D Systems (DDD) are up $1.57, over 5%, at $32.11, as short interest rose above 35%, notes TheFlyontheWall.
In other short-interest news, CLSA’s Srini Pajjuri notes that semiconductors saw an overall decline of 1.6% as of mid-December, which is on top of a 4.3% decrease in late November. 44% of companies sampled showed increases in short interest, while 56% saw decreases. The biggest short-interest increases were for Cypress Semiconductor (CY), NXP Semiconductor (NXPI), Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC), and KLA-Tencor (KLAC). The biggest decreases were for Marvell Technology Group (MRVL), Broadcom (BRCM), Intel, and Texas Instruments (TXN).
Shares of bandwidth provider Akamai Technologies (AKAM) are up 38 cents, or 0.6%, at $64.72, as some expect the company may benefit from Sony’s (SNE) decision on Wednesday to stream online the controversial film “The Interview.”
B. Riley’s Sameet Sinha writes today that “While it is not possible to estimate the potential benefit to Content Delivery Networks such as AKAM and Limelight Networks (LLNW), we would call this an incrementally beneficial event, which should contribute to 4Q14 on top of some of the larger and broader secular trends in online video.”
Longtime semiconductor equipment observer Robert Maire of Semiwatch this morning warns that tool makers could be hurt in Q1 because contract chip maker Global Foundries is diverting shipments of equipment to make chips at 14 nanometer dimensions to a warehouse.
“We have confirmed through numerous sources that over the last two weeks Global Foundries has stopped deliveries of tools for 14nm to its fab and instead is having the tools housed at a nearby warehouse,” writes Maire.
“We hear that tool makers are told that the fab facilities are not ready and it sounds like a one to two quarter delay,” writes Maire. “Some tool makers are speculating that the delay could also be related to financial issues or yield issues or a host of other odd rumors.”
Maire opines this may hurt Samsung Electronics (005930KS) in its bid to win back Apple’s chip business in 2015. he thinks “part of the pitch to Apple by Samsung was the availability of an independent, US based supplier.” That means Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) may hold onto Apple’s business longer, thinks Maire.
