By Ian Sherr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Stellar results from Intel Corp could signal brighter tech earnings results in coming weeks, but analysts warn stocks themselves may be stuck in a short-term correction.

Intel shares fell more than 3 percent even after analysts from Credit Suisse, Raymond James and JMP Securities, among others, raised their price targets on the stock. JMP Securities and Thinkequity raised their ratings to “outperform” and “buy” respectively.

The broader market was down on Friday as losses from JP Morgan Chase & Co helped drag the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite down 1.24 percent.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang expected a short-term correction for Intel and many other semiconductor stocks as Wall Street locks in profits after a solid fourth-quarter showing from the world’s largest chipmaker.

“Buy on the rumor, sell on the news,” he said, adding that semiconductor stocks have had a good run when put in the perspective of downgrades from both Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch before Intel reported stellar earnings.

“There’s no rhyme or reason behind the weakness here except that expectations are up and people are taking profits,” Wang said.

(more…)

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – GlobalFoundries plans to merge its operations with recently acquired Chartered Semiconductor, creating a single contract chipmaker with more than $2 billion of revenue to take on market leaders TSMC and UMC.

GlobalFoundries, a joint venture of Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Abu Dhabi-backed Advanced Technology Investment Co, is already beginning to work with suppliers and partners as one company, GlobalFoundries Chief Executive Doug Grose told Reuters in an interview.

(more…)