Noting that TSMC (TSM) said that its customers' inventory is elevated, Goldman says that TSMC is a semi bellwether, unlike Microchip (MCHP) whose negative comments caused a decline in semi stocks in October 2014 that wound up being a buying opportunity. Before investors can buy the current decline in semi stocks, several other bellwethers will need to reassure investors that the sector's fundamentals are intact during the upcoming earnings season, according to Goldman. The firm thinks that protracted fundamental weakness could cause the sector's multiples to drop severely, and it keeps a Cautious view on the sector. Publicly traded companies in the space include AMD (AMD), Intel (INTC), Marvell (MRVL), Microchip (MCHP), Micron (MU), NVIDIA (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Texas Instruments (TXN). Note that SanDisk (SNDK), a flash memory chip maker, cut its revenue guidance this morning.

Intel (INTC) is scheduled to report results of its fiscal first quarter after the market close on April 25, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Wednesday's total option volume of 42.3 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 4.78 million calls and 3.88 million puts. Tesla (TSLA), Meta Platforms (Facebook) (META), Ford (F) and NVIDIA (NVDA) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 42k Tesla (TSLA) Aug-24 185 calls, 35k Taiwan Semi (TSM) Aug-24 110 calls, 30k Capri Holdings (CPRI) May-24 35 calls, 29k Ford (F) 4/26 weekly 13.5 calls and 26k Tesla (TSLA) 5/3 weekly 75 puts.

Baird raised the firm's price target on Texas Instruments to $175 from $125 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm said any unexpected/incremental softening in demand would likely trigger price cuts given the current environment of low lead times and excess capacity, and the shape of 2H recovery will be critical in addressing inventory levels.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists. 1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Microsoft (MSFT) is scheduled to report results of the third quarter of its fiscal year 2024 after the market close on Thursday, April 25, with a conference call scheduled for 5:30 pm ET. What to watch... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

TD Cowen analyst Joshua Buchalter raised the firm's price target on Texas Instruments to $175 from $160 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares. The firm said the print wasn't great but an important improvement and positive indicator on stability for the group. That said, numbers still need to move meaningfully higher to build medium-term valuation support or material buyback growth.

BofA raised the firm's price target on Texas Instruments (TXN) to $190 from $175 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. TI's small Q1 beat and inline but sequentially rising Q2 sales guidance, "while modest, potentially marks a recovery inflection in industrial chip demand," with positive read-across for U.S. peers such as Analog Devices (ADI), Microchip (MCHP), NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) and On Semiconductor (ON), the analyst tells investors. However, despite an expected recovery, TI's sustained high capex intensity could keep reported calendar year 2024-26 pro-forma EPS below $6 per share, the analyst added.