Good news was that the downtown bottomed in Q1, and the better news was it bottomed one quarter earlier than the usual four quarter cycle. “The ultra strong Q2 was an unexpected surprise,” said Penn.

But it’s not as good as it looks. “Discretes are still negative and the only reason the market figures are up is because ASPs have recovered,” said Penn, “it is not the next super-cycle . . .yet. IC unit growth has yet to turn round. The bread and butter products are still languishing.”