Short Interest: Chip Stocks Follow PC Forecasts (INTC, AMD, QCOM, ARMH, MU, SNDK, BRCM, MRVL, NVDA, TXN, AMAT, SMH)

We have tracked the key short interest changes as of September 28 in the following semiconductor leaders: Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH), Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL), Nvdia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) and Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT). We also chose to look at how the Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) has held up.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) short interest rose 3.2% to 178.24 million shares. About 3.6% of Intel’s float is now short.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw short interest rise 17.6% to 142.22 million shares, 23.7% of the company’s total float.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) short interest rose 33.9% to 23.27 million shares, which represents just 1.4% of the company’s float.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARMH) saw a 9.6% rise in short interest to 7.35 million shares, which represents about 1.6% of the firm’s float.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) showed a decline of 7.6% in short interest, to 58 million shares, about 5.8% of Micron’s float.

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw short interest fall by 0.9% to 9.89 million shares, or 4.1% of the company’s float.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) saw short interest rise by 1.1% to 6.47 million shares, or 1.3% of the total float.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) posted a 1.8% decline in short interest, to 5.8 million shares, about 1.3% of Marvell’s float.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) short interest fell by 0.3%, to 14.86 million shares or about 2.5% of the company’s float.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) saw short interest fall by 12.4% to 17.63 million shares or 1.6% of the company’s float.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw short interest falling 4.8% to 18.29 million shares or about 1.5% of the company’s float.

The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (NYSEMKT: SMH) showed a rise of 18.1% in short interest to 5.86 million shares.

Most chip stocks have been hit by weak forecasts for PC shipments, and now Qualcomm saw a spike in short interest as competition continues to cut into the company’s business. Any chip associated with PCs or peripherals, whether in a printer or disk drive or whatever, is not expected to do well.

Paul Ausick