The short interest data for the August 29 settlement date has been released. 24/7 Wall St. has decided to look at the short interest reports for the key semiconductor stocks. What many investors forget is that semiconductors represent a key component of the economy, because just about every single consumer electronics device uses them now. Some investors even consider semiconductor trends an economic barometer for the coming months.

We have compared the short interest to the August 15 settlement date and prior periods to get a handle on what sort of trends the short sellers are considering ahead. Additional color has been added for some semiconductor leaders as well.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) saw its short interest fall to 130,054,875 shares with 9.02 days to cover, from the previous level of 139,917,853. The July short interest was 153,192,755 shares for the 31st and 112,530,331 for the 15th. July posted the high on the year, and August has the third and fourth highest readings. AMD shares have recovered from their latest earnings, but they have dribbled lower in the past couple of weeks.

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Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) saw its short interest fall to 67,854,280 shares with 6.25 days to cover, from the previous level of 72,718,443. The short interest for late-July was 75,851,986 shares and mid-July was 75,572,354. Short interest has risen over the past 52-weeks from the low reading last September of 15,744,634 to a yearly high in May of 77,791,164, which has rivaled recent prices.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) saw its short interest fall to 124,767,078 shares with 5.01 days to cover, from the previous level of 125,669,617. The end of July reading for short interest was 135,371,781 shares and the prior reading was 161,625,885. Short interest for Intel has been on a serious slide from mid-March as high as 222 million to current levels. With shares rising much more than most investors expected, maybe the short sellers decided to drop their anti-Intel bias — and shares are only 2% off of a decade high.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) saw its short interest fall to 101,267,990 shares with 6.86 days to cover, from the previous level of 105,149,070. The July readings for short interest were 125,250,679 shares for 31st and 121,751,101 for the 15th. Short interest had an increase over the summer months, peaking in July. The numbers have now fallen in August to two of the three lowest readings on the year. After the run-up that was seen, the short sellers likely just couldn’t take it any longer.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) saw its short interest rise to 20,882,322 shares with 2.95 days to cover, from the previous level of 18,373,330. The short interest levels for the previous month were 19,179,075 shares for late-July and 18,576,309 for mid-July. The company’s short interest has held consistently between the 18 million to 19 million level, following a spike in late March. Qualcomm shares remain somewhat in limbo.

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SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) saw its short interest rise to 16,536,429 shares with 6.79 days to cover, from the previous level of 16,265,604. July short interest read at 17,927,150 shares for the 31st and 16,277,486 for the 15th. The short interest for SanDisk has steadily declined over the course of the year and is currently hovering over the annual low. Despite a slight rise, the short interest trends are lower for SanDisk than a year ago, and short sellers should be thankful they didn’t keep increasing their bets against the stock as it rose from about $70 at the start of 2014 to well over $100 this summer.

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