英特尔又有啥大麻烦了

Qualcomm confirmed that their flagship Snapdragon 820 would power the latest LG G5, one day ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

A Bloomberg report in early February that Google was poised to endorse Qualcomm's server chip efforts turned out to be a rumor. Hence, we expect that Intel will step up with their data center server chip innovations and pricing, which will put more pressure on Qualcomm shares. Qualcomm has a weight of 8.16% in the SMH ETF.

Qualcomm Techncial Chart

Shares of Qualcomm have performed poorly during the past 10 years. QCOM bounced off a four-year low at $41.85 a share in mid-February and the stock is now trading near the $51 a share trendline resistance level. The stock can make a breakout if it can close and stay above $58 a share, but there are walls of resistances between now and the $58 a share level. There is support at $49 a share level if the stock pulls back.

Broadcom Ltd - The acquisition of Broadcom by Avago was completed in early February 2016 and the new company emerged as Broadcom Limited. After the merger, the company became one of largest analog and mixed-signal chip makers for automotive, industrial, and communications, as well as custom network chips. Broadcom is a major supplier for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) with revenue exposure of between 10% and 15%. Broadcom Ltd earnings reports are due March 3. Most analysts are bullish on the stock.

Broadcom Ltd Technical Chart

Technically, AVGO is trading at the top of the range and is about to break out the symmetrical triangle chart pattern. In a breakout event, the stock could retest the $149 level before making a new high. There are several supports if the stock pulls back. Broadcom has a weight of 5.15% in the SMH ETF.

Conclusions - Shares of Intel sold off earlier this year after reports said that the global outlook for PC shipments and notebook sales in 2016 were on a decline. The good news for Intel is that spending for data center systems is projected to grow and demand is expected to continue to be strong through 2016. But, there are concerns of new threats to the Intel Data Center Group as its revenues and operating income growth decelerate. The average selling prices, ASPs, on the Data Center Group platform have increased only minimally in 2015, and Intel may want to cut the ASP deeper if enterprise buying remains cool and new competitors, such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Advanced Micro, and others, begin to emerge.

In our opinion, the big cap competitors represent a near-term threat to Intel's data center business as customers become more willing to try new ARM-based ecosystems if large capital resources are behind research and development, software development and support that may improve over time.