AMAT

Applied Material (NASDAQ:AMAT) traded in a range yesterday that spanned from a low of $102.72 to a high of $106.56. Yesterday, the shares gained 7.7%, which took the trading range above the 3-day high of $100.87 on volume of 970,000 shares. Often times after large one-day gains, short term traders will seek to take profits and, as such, investors should be cautious.

(Bloomberg) -- Cisco Systems Inc. raised its offer for Acacia Communications Inc. by more than 70% to close a deal that its target tried to walk away from.Acacia shareholders will get $115 a share in cash in the revised bid, for a total deal value of $4.5 billion, Cisco said in a statement Thursday. Acacia, which agreed to the revised proposal, rallied as much as 32% in New York trading Thursday. The companies aim to complete the deal by the end of the first quarter.The new terms reflect the difficulties of trying do transactions that require approval in China and the surge in public market value of technology stocks. Approval from the largest market for semiconductors and many other types of electronic equipment has become a more difficult and time-consuming process during the outgoing U.S. administration’s trade war against China.Networking equipment maker Cisco announced in July 2019 that it had reached a deal to acquire Acacia, an optical component maker, for about $2.6 billion, saying the merger would help it capture a bigger chunk of spending on 5G telecommunications networks.Last week Acacia said that it was terminating the agreement because Cisco didn’t receive Chinese regulatory approval within the time-frame of the merger agreement. Cisco disputed that saying that an email it got from China constituted approval and took legal action to enforce the terms of the deal.Cisco’s move to renegotiate follows a similar tactic by Applied Materials Inc. which earlier this month said it raised its offer for KKR & Co.-owned Kokusai Electric Corp. by 59%, citing higher valuations in a growing industry. The deal also extended the target closing date to allow for regulatory approval from China, the final remaining jurisdiction where sign-off is needed.Cisco shares were little changed at $45.35 in New York following the announcement. Acacia surged 32% to as much as $114.45.(Updates with share price reaction.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

, /PRNewswire/ -- InvestorsObserver issues critical PriceWatch Alerts for SHOP, BABA, AMAT, KLAC, and AAL.

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects to boost capital spending to as much as $28 billion this year in order to safeguard its lead in advanced technologies that made it chipmaker of choice to the world’s technology and auto giants.Capital spending for 2021 is targeted at $25 billion to $28 billion, compared with $17.2 billion the previous year, Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said on a conference call. The increase in capex is intended to meet surging demand for the chipmaker’s advanced technologies, he added. Revenue for the first quarter is expected to at between $12.7 billion to $13 billion, ahead of the the average analyst estimate of $12.4 billion.Shares of the world’s largest contract chipmaker have surged more than 70% since the start of 2020, with investors betting that the likes of Apple Inc. will continue to lean on its widening technological lead over Samsung Electronics Co. The company has become a lynchpin in a plethora of sectors including consumer electronics and automaking, with its chips powering everything from iPhones phones to fridges and cars.About 80% of the capital spending will be devoted to advanced processor technologies -- namely 3nm, 5nm and 7nm -- development, Huang said.Net income in the quarter ended December climbed 23% to NT$142.8 billion ($5.1 billion), compared with the NT$137.2 billion average of analyst estimates, the chipmaker said Thursday. That contributed to a 50% increase in full-year profit, the speediest rate of expansion since 2010. Sales in the December quarter climbed 14% to a record NT$361.5 billion, according to previously disclosed monthly numbers, helped in part by robust demand for Apple’s new 5G iPhones.Read more: TSMC’s Quarterly Revenue Hits Record on Strong iPhone DemandThe fourth-quarter results revealed increasing contributions from TSMC’s most-advanced 5-nanometer process technology -- used to make Apple’s A14 chips. That accounted for about 20% of total revenue during the quarter, more than doubling its share from the previous three months, while 7nm represented 29%. By business segment, TSMC’s smartphone business contributed about 51% to revenue, while high-performance computing (HPC) was at 31%.As rivals like United Microelectronics Corp. fall behind and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. struggles with American sanctions, TSMC’s pivotal role is likely to expand in 2021. The company has been racing to meet demand from larger-volume electronics clients, exacerbating a severe shortage of automotive chips that’s forcing firms like Honda Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG to curtail production. Even Intel Corp. was said to be considering outsourcing to the Asian firm after a series of inhouse technology slip-ups, though it’s unclear whether the company may pivot after the appointment of a new CEO.TSMC said the automotive industry had been “soft” since 2018 and demand only started to recover in the fourth quarter. The company is working with its automotive customers to resolve the capacity supply issues, Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei said. Read more: Missing Chips Snarl Car Production at Factories WorldwideFoundries such as TSMC, UMC and Globalfoundries Inc. aren’t expanding fast enough to meet the pandemic-induced spike in demand for gadgets. Those bottlenecks snarled the flow of chips not just to cars, but also Xboxes and PlayStations and even certain iPhones. TSMC is by far the most advanced of the foundries responsible for making a significant portion of the world’s semiconductors, serving the likes of Qualcomm Inc. and NXP Semiconductors NV, which also supply the mobile and auto industries.“The world needs advanced silicon and only TSMC has that,” Bernstein’s Mark Li wrote Tuesday in a note. The analyst raised his share price target to NT$800, representing gains of more than 30%.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Today's 5 Stock Ideas:  Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) - Company CEO, Lisa Su, will present at the Consumer Electronics Show keynote at 11 a.m. EST Tuesday. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) -