Global chip sales edged up 0.5% in June from a month earlier, contributing to 7.1% growth in the second quarter from the prior quarter.Meanwhile, gains for the month and quarter from last year were 49% and 45%, respectively, reflecting growth in a broad range of markets from an industry slowdown in the first half of last year. Both June and the second quarter last year were down some 20% from the same periods in 2008.
June 2010's sales totaled $24.93 billion; the quarter finished at $74.8 billion.
Note this chart of equipment and software investment from the latest GDP report:
The pace has been increasing. The above story indicates we could see an increase in that trend into the third quarter.
2 comments:
The problem with chip sales is that the US barely manufactures any chips anymore. So much of the "investment" in chips and software by US companies gets subtracted right back out by imports, except the mar- up by US companies (which goes right into profits and is often misinterpreted by official data as production); plus software investment often misplaces workers, which has an adverse impact on employment, wages, and total final demand.
This is different from the impact of chip sales and software investment and subsequent productivity gains back in the 1980s and most the 1990s, when chips were manufactured in the US and software was designed in the US, and the value of that work and manufacturing more than mitigated the losses from misplaces workers and the purchases didn't subtract from GDP via imports.
I should have made that clearer. What I was referring to specifically was that equipment and software investment is increasing at a strong pace and this number indicates that trend should continue.
Post a Comment