(Bloomberg) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Nvidia Corp. led semiconductor stocks higher on Monday, putting a benchmark index on track for its biggest two-day rally since 2015.
The Philadelphia semiconductor index gained 2.7 percent as the technology industry gears up for the CES conference in Las Vegas. That pushed the 30-member index's gains above 7 percent since Friday and back into positive territory for the year.
Nvidia Corp. jumped as much as 6.4 percent after a presentation by Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang in Las Vegas Sunday that focused on improvements to the company's graphics processors for personal computers and teased automotive-related announcements later in the week. AMD, the best performer in the S&P 500 for 2018, gained as much as 8 percent. Lisa Su, the chipmaker's chief executive, is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at CES on Wednesday morning.
Semiconductor stocks in 2018 -- dogged by the U.S.-China trade war, waning end market demand and the memory chip slump -- had their worst year since 2011 following two-consecutive years of better than 30 percent gains. Both AMD and Nvidia suffered from a collapse in cryptocurrency-related demand in the latter half of the year. The Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 7.8 percent in 2018.
Qualcomm Inc. is scheduled to hold a press conference at 3:00 p.m. ET, followed by Intel Corp. at 7:00 p.m. ET.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Brad Olesen, Steven Fromm
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