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Economy in Brief
U.S. Pending Home Sales Plunge to Record Low
Pending home sales fell 21.8% in April...
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State & Pandemic Assistance Initial Claims Total 46.7 Million in Last Ten Weeks
Initial jobless claims decreased to a still extremely-elevated 2.123 million in the week ending May 23...
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Italy's consumer and business indexes plunge in May...
by Tom Moeller June 7, 2005
April sales of semiconductors in the Americas as published by the Semiconductor Industry Association fell a sharp 21.1% following a like increase the month prior. This sideways movement in American sales of semis has been in place for roughly a year.
American sales of semiconductors account for 18% of the worldwide total, about half the percentage in 2000. Sales growth in the Asia/Pacific region averaged 41.3% last year, twice the American average, while sales in Japan rose 17.5%. The Asia/Pacific region currently accounts for just under one half of worldwide sales of semiconductors, up from less than one quarter in 2000.
During the last ten years there has been a 66% correlation between the y/y change in American sales of semiconductors and the change in real U.S. investment in equipment & software.
| Semiconductor Sales | April | March | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | $16.679B | $20.556B | 4.7% | 28.0% | 18.3% | 1.3% |
| Americas | $2.920B | $3.701B | 3.8% | 20.8% | 3.4% | -12.6% |
