Americas Technology: Semiconductors: SIA data shows mostly above-seasonal trends in August

Shipments of integrated circuits units (ex. memory) increased ~2% month over month in August, better than typical seasonality, according to data from Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Most segments shipped at above-seasonal levels for the month, although discrete, MCUs, and DSP saw worse-than-seasonal M/M unit declines - which we would attribute to broad consumer electronic softness. Despite these limited areas of weakness, overall shipments are now tracking 10% above long-term demand on a three-month moving average basis (vs. 7% above trend in July). Improving trends over the past several months are consistent with companies' constructive commentary, particularly for analog where shipments are now also running ~10% above trend. Performance by sub-segment was as follows: IC ex. Memory units were above trend; analog units were above trend, better than the prior month;