Managing Director, Zero One, Zero One

Vincent Fernando, CFA

Managing Director, Zero One

Equity Bottom-Up

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) - ADR / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Inventory levels rose to highs in 3Q22 -- Now increased margin pain may come through as we move through the latest earnings season.</li>
<li>Forecasts still assume relatively strong margins vs. history and thus appear at risk of disappointment.</li>
<li>Earnings forecasts, while assuming a down-cycle, are still assuming a relatively benign down-cycle.</li>
</ul>


Inventory levels rose to highs in 3Q22 -- Now increased margin pain may come through as we move through the latest earnings season.
Forecasts still assume relatively strong margins vs. history and thus appear at risk of disappointment.
Earnings forecasts, while assuming a down-cycle, are still assuming a relatively benign down-cycle.


Why Taiwan's Semiconductor and Hardware Forecasts Might Still Be Too Optimistic

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>2023 gameplan remains unchanged; we see limited upside from here for ACWI-US, and we expect a rangebound year of trading on ACWI-US with $93 capping upside and $75-77 capping downside</li>
<li>We also remain overweight Europe/UK, we want to add exposure on pullbacks to China/Hong Kong/EM, and overweight non-U.S. equities (MSCI ACWI ex-US) relative to MSCI ACWI</li>
<li>We highlight buy ideas within Technology, Communications, and Consumer Discretionary. The UK/Europe and Hong Kong/China continue to make up the majority of our buy recommendations</li>
</ul>


2023 gameplan remains unchanged; we see limited upside from here for ACWI-US, and we expect a rangebound year of trading on ACWI-US with $93 capping upside and $75-77 capping downside
We also remain overweight Europe/UK, we want to add exposure on pullbacks to China/Hong Kong/EM, and overweight non-U.S. equities (MSCI ACWI ex-US) relative to MSCI ACWI
We highlight buy ideas within Technology, Communications, and Consumer Discretionary. The UK/Europe and Hong Kong/China continue to make up the majority of our buy recommendations


Major Top on U.S. Dollar; Overweight Non-U.S. And Europe/UK; Buys in Tech, Comm., Discretionary

<ul>
<li>ASML and Lam Research's latest guidance implies extremely different near-term revenue outlooks but shows an industry pulling back near-term while investing for long-term.</li>
<li>Results show the much weaker situation for Memory chips vs. Logic chips, and little discussion of a recovery for Memory from the firms so far.</li>
<li>Firms servicing long-term strategic, specialized demand from customers are indeed performing better than those servicing more commoditized demand.</li>
</ul>


ASML and Lam Research's latest guidance implies extremely different near-term revenue outlooks but shows an industry pulling back near-term while investing for long-term.
Results show the much weaker situation for Memory chips vs. Logic chips, and little discussion of a recovery for Memory from the firms so far.
Firms servicing long-term strategic, specialized demand from customers are indeed performing better than those servicing more commoditized demand.


ASML & Lam Results: Key Take-Aways for Semiconductors in 2023

<ul>
<li>New China semiconductor restrictions could be announced by the Netherlands and Japan by end-January.</li>
<li>Realtek 4Q22 results -- Signals weakness for companies serving the PC market, and could get worse in 1Q23E.</li>
<li>Western Digital &amp; Kioxia could merge NAND flash units to create a rival to Samsung.</li>
</ul>


New China semiconductor restrictions could be announced by the Netherlands and Japan by end-January.
Realtek 4Q22 results -- Signals weakness for companies serving the PC market, and could get worse in 1Q23E.
Western Digital &amp; Kioxia could merge NAND flash units to create a rival to Samsung.


Taiwan Tech Weekly: Dutch & Japan China Restrictions End-January, Realtek Results Show Pain in PCs

Equity Long-Short Analyst

Pyari Menon

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>The three companies we write about this week are ASML Holding NV (ASML US) , Bayer AG (BAYN GY)  and Gentex Corp (GNTX US)</li>
<li>We included ChatGPT's innovation assessment for the three companies in the report. The qualitative commentary of ChatGPT though fluffy does somewhat reflect our quantitative assessment from technical literature.</li>
<li>For the nine weeks since inception ended 20 Jan the combined innovation portfolio was +3.5%, versus DJIA -1.1%, S&amp;P500 +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.1%, Russell2000 +1.0%, MSCI-ACWI-ETF +3.1%, all in US$ terms</li>
</ul>


The three companies we write about this week are ASML Holding NV (ASML US) , Bayer AG (BAYN GY)  and Gentex Corp (GNTX US)
We included ChatGPT's innovation assessment for the three companies in the report. The qualitative commentary of ChatGPT though fluffy does somewhat reflect our quantitative assessment from technical literature.
For the nine weeks since inception ended 20 Jan the combined innovation portfolio was +3.5%, versus DJIA -1.1%, S&amp;P500 +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.1%, Russell2000 +1.0%, MSCI-ACWI-ETF +3.1%, all in US$ terms


Netherlands

ASML Holding N.V. develops, produces, and markets semiconductor manufacturing equipment, specifically machines for the production of chips through lithography. The Company services clients world wide.

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ASML Holding NV (ASML NA)

Why Taiwan's Semiconductor and Hardware Forecasts Might Still Be Too Optimistic

The continued rise in inventory levels seen from 3Q22 results poses a risk for margins in 4Q22E and 1Q23E results. Earnings expectations still...

Vincent Fernando, CFA

Major Top on U.S. Dollar; Overweight Non-U.S. And Europe/UK; Buys in Tech, Comm., Discretionary

The $DXY broke below 5-year support at $103, signaling a major top in place. This is bullish for risk assets, and is another sign suggesting the...

Vermilion Research

ASML & Lam Results: Key Take-Aways for Semiconductors in 2023

Firms servicing long-term strategic, specialized demand from customers are indeed performing better than those servicing more commoditized demand.

Vincent Fernando, CFA

Taiwan Tech Weekly: Dutch & Japan China Restrictions End-January, Realtek Results Show Pain in PCs

Also- The U.S. military is preparing for Speaker of the House McCarthy to visit Taiwan; and Western Digital & Kioxia could merge NAND flash units...

Vincent Fernando, CFA

The Innovations Portfolio - Week Nine

For the nine weeks since inception ended 20 Jan the combined innovation portfolio was +3.5%, versus DJIA -1.1%, S&P500 +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.1%,...

Pyari Menon

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