Back in early May when President Trump put hopes of a trade deal with China on hold, one of the groups hardest hit was semiconductors. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) declined 19.8% from its intraday high in late April to its low on 5/29 and first traded back below its 50-day moving average (DMA) on 5/13. From its low, the SOX has erased just about half of its losses from the April high, but three times now, the group has seen a rally stall out right at or below its 50-DMA. As long as the SOX is able to hold on to its higher low from earlier this week, it’s not much of a problem, but if it goes on to make a new short-term low, it would be a worrisome sign.

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With the SOX failing to retake its 50-DMA, we wanted to see which stocks in the group have been holding the group back. The table below lists each of the components of the SOX and where each one is trading relative to its 50-DMA.Of the 30 stocks in the index, just 13 are currently above their 50-DMA, while the remaining 17 are still below that level, so it’s not as though just a handful of stocks are holding the SOX back. Micron (MU), MKS Instruments (MKSI), Cree (CREE), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Qorvo (QRVO) are all more than 5% below their 50-DMAs, while Cypress (CY), Advanced Micro (AMD), and Silicon Motion (SIMO) are the only three stocks more than 5% above their 50-DMAs.  

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