Why Semiconductor Manufacturing Stocks Soared in September

Several makers of semiconductor manufacturing tools soared in September 2017, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Ichor Holdings (NASDAQ: ICHR) rose 17.1%, Semiconductor Manufacturing International (NYSE: SMI) gained 17.8%, and Ultra Clean Holdings (NASDAQ: UCTT) jumped 32.7% higher. None of these companies had much news of their own to lean on last month. Instead, they rode on the back of strengthening trends in the chip industry as a whole, capped by some significant good news from two large customers -- memory chipmaker Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) and equipment maker Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT).

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Several end-user markets that have been causing trouble for technology stocks in recent quarters showed signs of improvement throughout September. Consumers embraced the next generation of flagship smartphones with open arms, cloud computing and artificial intelligence continued to provide a solid growth base for all sorts of related hardware, and chip-based solid state storage devices stole some more market share from traditional magnetic-platter hard drives. All of these broad market trends were good news for chip stocks in general, and semiconductor manufacturing specialists rode their coattails.

Source: Fool.com