As the world’s largest semiconductor processing plant and Apple’s chip manufacturing partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing announced last Thursday that its profit forecast for the second quarter of this year was between US$7.8 billion and US$7.9 billion. Wall Street expects a considerable difference of 8.8 billion US dollars. TSMC said it was due to its weak demand in the mobile sector, which led to the expected reduction in profit.
Daniel Ives, analyst of market research firm GBH Insights, said in a note to his clients on Tuesday: 'Apple will announce its highly anticipated first-quarter financial report next week, but Wall Street It has already started to panic, because Apple's Asian supply chain companies released news that Apple's shipments in June of this year will be much lower than expected.
A senior industry analyst believes that TSMC’s downward adjustment of profit expectations for the next quarter will be a sign of the chip industry waning and the stock market falling.
High Tech Strategist editor Fred Hickey said on social media last Thursday: 'Taiwan Semiconductor's profit forecast released this morning may signal the end of the continuous upward trend in the semiconductor (SOX) industry stock price. It is a barometer for the overall stock market, and has grown relatively strong over the past two years. In addition, this will also affect Apple, the company with the highest market value and other suppliers.
One day after TSMC announced its negative profit forecast, Wall Street’s top investment bank Morgan Stanley lowered its forecast for iPhone sales in the second quarter, which is between 34 million and 40.5 million, which is lower than the previous average of 43 million units. Expected.
Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty wrote on Friday: 'We are expecting Apple to report a first-quarter earnings report that is in line with expectations, but our consensus on the second quarter is adjusted. Low expectations. Apple's quarterly earnings report is a hot issue, especially when its expectations have generally declined.
On Monday, another major Apple supplier, AMS, also lowered its profit forecast for the second quarter. This Australian-based supplier mainly supplies optical sensor components for the iPhone X. AMS said that The second-quarter profit forecast was between $22 million and $25 million, a decrease of nearly 50% from the first quarter.
Moritz Gmeiner, Head of Investor Relations at AMS, told the media: 'We will not discuss a specific customer, but we have witnessed a significant decline in the volume of business of a large smartphone manufacturer. This is for us. The consumer business and the entire company have had a negative impact.'
Bill Peterson, a wireless semiconductor industry analyst, said in a note he wrote to his customers on Tuesday: 'Taiwan Semiconductor and AMS' negative expectations for its second-quarter profit indicate consumer demand for Apple devices is declining. Is the demand for the iPhone X. Based on this understanding, I think the current general forecast for Apple's second quarter profit is still too high. '
Apple did not immediately comment on the matter.