At a time when plenty of American technology, consumer and machinery companies are eager to get back into China as US and Chinese officials back off the Trade War brinksmanship, there's one big US tech company that hasn't gotten back to business as usual: Intel ($INTC).
In China, Intel's job postings slid a whopping 72% as President Donald J. Trump ratcheted up trade war rhetoric against Chinese President Xi Jinping - and they've yet to rebound.
That's a stark contrast to a number of other leading technology companies that increased job postings in China lately. Earlier in 2019, Amazon appeared to brush off the Trump-Xi spat, and was ramping up China job postings in mid-summer. But, for many other technology companies - like IBM, Tesla and HP - the lingering commodity and security issues were enough to make C-suite leadership possibly recalibrate spending plans there. But, each of these companies (and, chipmaker Micron) have returned to China with substantially more job postings, perhaps a signal that Wall Street and corporate America have each had enough of the policy beef.
The good news is, Intel's China pullback hasn't hampered shares much lately. Over the course of 2019, global job postings at Intel fell 32% - and over the last 12 months, that's exactly the percentage the California chipmaker's shares have risen.
Intel is expected to report EPS of $1.24 when it announces results on Thursday January 23.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.