semiconductor stocks stand to hand back all their covid19 pandemic gains according to one analyst as the industry continues to work its way by degrees through an inventory glut that materialized after two years of shortages citi research analyst christopher danely wrote in a monday note that “half” of the glut has been worked through in the pc and wireless sectors as was evidenced by the massive inventory charges taken by chip makers like intel corp intc  advanced micro devices inc amd  and nvidia corp nvda  and qualcomm inc qcom in recent earnings reports qualcomm’s forecast predicted that inventory issues would persist into june that leaves the other “half” of the industry where demand has persisted but is now showing signs of slowing especially in the increasingly important datacenter market sustained by publiccloud providers like amazoncom inc amzn  microsoft corp msft  and alphabet inc’s goog googl google auto and industrial chip sales from analog chip makers like texas instruments inc txn and nxp semiconductors nv nxpi make up the other areas where acute shortages during the height of covid19 led to sustained demand the phlx semiconductor index sox  which tracks 30 components of the semiconductor industry and counts nvidia and thirdparty fab provider taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co tsm among its largest last peaked on dec 27 2021 when it closed at record 403951 a little more than a year ago the sector then dropped from those record highs to within bear market territory in a month and are still 28 off those highs as fears of a glut began to set in with wall street over the past 12 months however the sox index is only down 14 given 2023’s strong year out of the gate with a 17 gain while the dow jones industrial average djia has slipped 07 over the past 12 months the sp 500 index spx has declined 9 and the techheavy nasdaq composite index comp has fallen 16 read nvidia adds to ai hype with new cloudbased service stock jumps on forecast in his note danely said estimates for the past earnings fell 32 as company’s provided outlooks and he warned they could drop “at least” another 10 as auto industrial and datacenter markets correct “we expect the sox index fall by 30 and hit new lows driven by eps declines and a compression in multiples” danely wrote the analyst sees sentiment as most positive on microchip technology inc mchp and amd and most negative on intel and memorychip maker micron technology inc mu  danely said analog devices inc adi remains his top pick given his defensive posture on the sector read nvidia’s stockmarket hot streak is far from over according to wall street analysts “we believe semiconductor stocks will bottom after every company including adi and mchp cuts estimates trades close to trough valuations and cuts capex” that would punch the sox down to around 2075 a level not seen since july 2020 when semiconductors were on the uptick given shortages created by the covid19 pandemic and a month before intel’s bombshell announcement that its nextgen chips would be delayed “when the downturn ends we prefer to own stocks with secularly increasing eps such as micron on semiconductor corp on  globalfoundries gfs and amd as they should offer the most upside” danely wrote from april 2022 the end of onechip wonders why nvidia intel and amd’s valuations have experienced massive upheaval inventory problems have become a visible plague on the industry as seen in earnings reports from intel and amd read more the world is buying fewer devices and inventories for pcs phones and tablets are building intel’s worsethanfeared quarterly report arrived as the pc industry deals with the worst shipment declines in recorded history amd intel and nvidia had all poured new models of gaming cards into the holiday channel at a time when pc shipments were dropping at their steepest recorded rates and a wave of secondhand graphicsprocessing units or gpus hit the market as unprofitable cryptocurrencymining operations folded broadcom inc avgo is scheduled to report earnings on thursday while micron is scheduled to report march 28