The three most important types of chips for South Korea

-- dynamic random access memory, NAND flash memory and system semiconductors -- are all bouncing back in terms of their prices negotiated in export contracts. That’s one of the clearest signs that global demand is coming back to life albeit slowly.

One of the main questions now is,

will the semiconductor recovery continue?

To this, no one can answer with certitude, but global chip sales have already been showing a rising trend for months. Whether this will hold up is largely up to investment plans by major technology companies and consumer demand that drives their earnings.

I’d be grateful if someone could ask a question during the Q&A about that big chunk of tax income Samsung had in the quarter.

Is South Korea giving its biggest company a little boost?

As chips become ever more strategically important, we’re seeing ever more state subsidies, tax reductions and other financial incentives.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the word most commonly heard on Samsung

earnings calls has been “

uncertainty

.”

“We expect demand from PC and mobile to improve as customer inventories have generally reached normal levels,”

고객사 재고가 일반적인 수준에 이름에 따라 PC 및 모바일 수요가 개선 될 것으로 전망함.

The focus on HBM shows how important the current AI boom is to the entire electronics hardware sector.

Generative AI is very hungry for high-bandwidth memory.

But if that sector slows, the demand could quickly dry up. Samsung says it has the highest HBM capacity in the industry. That’s a big deal, and takes its memory strategy past simple commodity DRAM.

생성형 인공지능 부문에서 고대역폭 메모리 소비가 엄청나며, 이 산업에 있어 가장 핵심임. 다만, 이 수요는 성장 둔화 시 급격하게 감소할 수 있음. 동사는 고대역폭 메모리 부문에 전력을 다하고 있음.

“We expect

the recovery trend in the memory market to accelerate

,”.

Cloud capex for generative AI demand is strong and purchasing activity is noticeable.

Samsung’s suggesting that

demand for

its advanced products is the

most reliable and inelastic

-- which would align with what Debby said about governments around the world all chasing those cutting-edge parts.

동사는 최첨단의 진보 된 기술에 공급되는 제품만 신뢰할 수 있고 가격 비탄력적으로 여기며 이곳에 집중할 것이라 이해할 수 있겠음.

Samsung is pushing HBM3/3E and

planning to expand capacity of HBM by

2.5 times

next year.

One major takeaway from today’s call: if you’re building your own PC, now’s the time to buy the memory and storage for it.

Prices are unlikely to decline again for a while.

개인용 컴퓨터를 구입하고 싶다면, 지금이 좋은 시기로 보임. 동사의 투자자 설명은 주요 제품 가격이 당분간 다시 하락하기 어려울 것이란 인상을 줌.

The key takeaways from Samsung’s third-quarter earnings and briefing for analysts.

BOJ Keeps 1% Ceiling for Longer Yields.

Powell Hints Fed Is Done With Hikes in Pivot Cheered by Markets.

The happy warrior

Fed Chair Powell sounded quite pleased with the effort to bring down inflation, where he saw “pretty significant progress.” Inflation expectations “are in a good place,” which is “critical to winning the battle.” Wage inflation has “come down significantly,” and he added: “I feel good about that”.

While hikes remain on the table, the message is gradually changing as risks are becoming “more two-sided”.

In any event, we continue to see the Fed on hold at the next meeting and on through the first half of next year.

- J.P.Morgan

US equity futures pointed to an extension of Wednesday’s gains on Wall Street as Asian stocks headed for their biggest gain in almost four months.

Apple

4Q Rev. $89.50B, Est. $89.35B
Apple 4Q iPhone Revenue $43.81B, Est. $43.73B
Apple 4Q Greater China Rev. $15.08B, Est. $17.01B

MASSIVE miss in China on Apple, coming in at about $2 billion less than Wall Street had expected.