As the trading week came to a close, investors were feeling rather downbeat about the semiconductor industry. Many stocks in the sector had been flying high on the great promise of artificial intelligence (AI) boosting their results. However, some sour notes in recent earnings reports from major "chippies" -- particularly in the guidance posted by sector king Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) -- led to a fairly wide sell-off on Friday.

Taiwan Semi, which fell by over 3%, had plenty of company. Storage chip specialist Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) closed the day nearly 5% down, and analog chipmaker Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) slid by over 2%.

What happens with Taiwan Semi reverberates throughout the chip sector, as the contract manufacturer is the 800-pound gorilla of the industry these days.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com