Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP)

When considering investment options based on the technical status of the stock market, it can be helpful to remember some of the best-known thoughts from leaders in the game, especially in topsy-turvy times (such as now).

Broadcom is one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world and has also expanded into infrastructure software. Its semiconductors primarily serve computing and networking, with custom AI accelerators now accounting for the bulk of the business. It is primarily a fabless designer, but holds some manufacturing in-house, such as for its best-of-breed film bulk acoustic resonator filters that sell into the Apple iPhone. In software, it sells virtualization, infrastructure, and security software to large enterprises, financial institutions, and governments. Broadcom is the product of consolidation. Its businesses are an amalgamation of former companies like legacy Broadcom and Avago Technologies in chips, as well as VMware, Brocade, CA Technologies, and Symantec in software.

TSM, headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, was founded in 1987 and pioneered the pure-play foundry or 'merchant fab' model. The company serves both integrated semiconductor producers that outsource a portion of their production and 'fabless' semiconductor producers that outsource all manufacturing. Taiwan Semi serves over 500 semiconductor customers, producing more than 11,500 distinct products while providing a broad range of specialty and advanced packaging technologies.

ASML is the leader in lithography systems for manufacturing semiconductors with 90% market share. Lithography is the process in which a light source is used to expose circuit patterns from a photomask onto a semiconductor wafer. Lithography allows chipmakers to increase the number of transistors in the same area of silicon, with lithography historically representing a high portion of the cost of making cutting-edge chips. ASML outsources the manufacturing of most of its parts, acting like an assembler. ASML’s largest clients are TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, and Micron.