Chipmaker Trader Sentiment Received A Major Boost From G-20

Semiconductor stocks have been on fire this week following news of a G-20 trade war truce between the U.S. and China. Rumors of a potential semiconductor mega-merger between Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) may also be feuling semiconductor stocks, and investor sentiment in the space is on the rise.

G-20 Bump

Bullish investor sentiment related to QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) ranged mostly between 61% and 64% in the week heading up to the G-20 meeting, according to StockTwits’ analysis of messages on their platform. Following the G-20 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Qualcomm bullish StockTwits sentiment spiked as high as 84%.

StockTwits reports similar sentiment spikes this week in Broadcom (74% percent bullish) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) (83% bullish). AMD post volume also jumped to its highest level in a month.

M&A Heating Up?

In addition to the good news surrounding the trade war, Bloomberg reported Tuesday night that Broadcom is in “advanced talks” to acquire security software vendor Symantec. This deal would be Broadcom’s second major software acquisition in the past year. The company’s $18 billion buyout of CA Technologies last year was met with mixed reviews from analysts and investors, but Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said Wednesday Broadcom has a lot to gain from Symantec.

“If Broadcom goes down this route we believe there are some significant synergies and cost cutting on the enterprise side, coupled with a cash cow machine on the consumer front, and in terms of a ~$18 billion to $20 billion deal this would make sense on paper although many questions would still remain about the overall software strategy going forward,” Ives said.

Semiconductor traders will be watching closely in the coming weeks for more potential news on the trade war front or any additional M&A activity that could impact investor sentiment in the near term.

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