Western Digital Corporation (WDC)

Let's hope the blacklisting of eight companies supplying surveillance equipment to the Chinese state is not just another chip on the U.S.-China trade negotiating table.

As cloud giants digest some of their past investments in hardware and chips, they're still investing heavily in growing their data center capacity. That's ultimately a positive for data center REITs and chip suppliers with cloud exposure.

Trading volume has been shrinking from late June, and this is not the picture technical analysts like to see.

Recent pricing data, upbeat analyst reports and a guidance hike from a Taiwanese memory maker give fresh reasons to think the memory industry's downturn is nearing an end.

Here's how I'd play it.

Samsung and Western Digital both suggest memory demand is improving following a very rough first half of the year. And Lam Research's outlook suggests industry supply growth is falling sharply.

Apple is on the verge of offering new products that could diversify its revenue stream even further.

The fact that the stock's running could be because CEO Bob Swann called the bottom in data center spend.

And as the semiconductor sector continues to shine, Brooks Automation is a name to keep in mind.

Also, defense industry names can breathe easier with word of debt ceiling and federal spending deal.

Skeptics say nothing was resolved with China deal, but they're wrong -- do they know our stock markets have run wild the first half of the year not despite, but because of the endless pessimism?

As chip stocks gain nearly across the board following numbers from Micron that weren't exactly stellar, it's worth remembering how low valuations for many names had gotten.

The trouble for me, as an investor, is that this business remains in decline until it is not in decline.

Talks between Washington and Beijing unlikely to end tariffs, but what would be worse? If the Fed chief dropped his guard on a single tweet.

Broadcom's Huawei mess is at the heart of Trump's disregard for what happens to American businesses.

The data center switch supplier still has strong long-term growth drivers. But it could see more profit-taking following a weak Q2 outlook blamed on softening cloud demand.

The big portfolio managers get ahead of the turn in cycles -- as we can see in oil services, semiconductors and autos, among other sectors. Here's how to play their game.

How all this, plus things like the housing market's New Home Sales, are helping support the market.

A resilient market allows you to buy stocks when they get hammered and do so with some certainty that you won't get your head handed to you.

There are several metrics that will be measured across all of the major banks that analysts and investors alike must take into account.

But most important, networking is on fire - the internet of things and that's so terrific for everyone.

The Chinese e-commerce giant just took a stake in a video platform, and is reportedly in talks to buy a stake in a German retailer's Chinese arm.

In Western Digital's daily bar chart we can see some recent improvement after a long and painful decline from March.

Are the semis right, and the bottom has been reached, or are the industrials right, and there is another leg down to come?

The beaten down semiconductors are building up some serious momentum.

As Apple preps video and news/magazine services for launch this year, a new report states the company is also thinking about launching a gaming service.