Semiconductor stocks have cycle-leading characteristics

As Sevens Report President Tom Essaye notes, “semiconductor stocks have cycle-leading characteristics,” given their volatility and risky balance sheets, meaning they “begin to roll over before most of the rest of the market as traders rotate away to lower-beta, more value-oriented names during times of uncertainty, including economic downturns (but admittedly also “growth scares” such as 2022). So, as we continue to navigate an uncertain market landscape in the second half, the SOX are offering us a ‘canary in the market coal mine’ right now that could, and likely will, offer fair warning before a more meaningful decline in the broader market indexes, such as the S&P 500 , eventually begins to take shape.