Intel and two other chipmakers are best bets in sell-off, according to traders

Semis stocks have been slammed.

The SMH semiconductor ETF, which holds top chip stocks such as AMD and Broadcom, has fallen 8% in a week as the number of coronavirus cases outside of China spiked. The supply-chain-sensitive stocks have been hit especially hard by fears of global economic disruption.

Quint Tatro, president of Joule Financial, is using the sell-off as an opportunity to buy certain stocks on weakness. Two names that are at the top of his list are Applied Materials and Intel.

“They’re great fundamental stories. They’ve had excellent earnings and now they’re getting hit and it’s very, very hard to do in a tape like we’re seeing today, but if you have been cautious and have had some cash on the sidelines, this is the time to step in and put some money to work,” Tatro said Monday

Applied Materials fell 5% and Intel 4% on Monday. The two were down more than 8% in the past week.

“We’re buying both of those names at what we feel are attractive valuations here,” said Tatro.

Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, says the entire semis space may need to take pause after a steep climb.

“It maybe just needs some more time to stabilize after such a terrific run, but we are buyers of the pullback for longer-term investors. The semiconductor SOX index is still above its rising 200-day moving average [and] coming into an important level at 1760,” Wald said during the same segment.

The Philadelphia semiconductor index that Wald is tracking would need to fall another 2% to reach 1,760. It has not traded at that level since early December.

“We’d be buying the relative leaders — LAM Research really does stand out here, coming off a new high unlike that index. That’s the stock we be buying first,” said Wald.

LAM Research was down 5% on Monday and has declined more than 11% in a week.