“Black Swan” is a commonly used phrase in the world of finance to describe an event that is unexpected and unknowable. The recent surge of the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and its anticipated negative impact on the global economy and IC market definitely fits the definition of a Black Swan event. Such events typically cause a great deal of uncertainty and that is certainly the case today.
Over a decade ago, Jeff Immelt, then-CEO of General Electric, coined the term “reset economy.” He used this phrase to describe what he expected to be a very different world following the financial meltdown and ensuing global economic crisis of 2008-2009.
Fast forward to 2020. IC Insights believes that this “reset” philosophy can be applied to the global IC industry this year following the current worldwide disruption to trade and business and the expected subsequent slowdown of the global economy due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
After enduring a steep market decline in 2019, most believed the IC industry was poised for a reasonably robust recovery in 2020. In fact, January 2020 global IC sales were up a solid 79% from one year earlier in January 2019. IC Insights had originally forecast an 8% increase for the 2020 IC market in its McClean Report 2020 that was released this past January.
