Global semiconductor sales dropped last week after six weeks of double-digit growth, according to VLSI analyst Dan Hutcheson in a report issued on Wednesday.

“The weather cooled as chip makers became notably more nervous about the rest of the year,” Hutcheson wrote. A week ago, he said there were signs that the fourth quarter could be soft.

Despite last week’s decline, his third quarter forecast still calls for a 20% improvement in the third quarter over third quarter 2019.

The DRAM semiconductor segment has proven to be one of the strongest for the year, with VLSI forecasting 32% growth in the third quarter.  That level of improvement will occur because 2019 was a rough year, Hutcheson added.

“DRAMs are still well below their glory year of 2018 when high prices ballooned the size of this market,” Hutcheson said.

Also, semiconductor supply and demand were in a balanced state last week because shortages at foundries loosened up, he said.  Outsourced assembly and test companies are seeing hot activity for packaging services and 5G testing, but everything else has cooled.

VLSI also noticed a steep five week decline in electronics which appears to have reached bottom, with back-to-school laptop sales strong. Prices are holding strong for TVs, appliances and digital cameras because of COVID-related component shortages.

Worldwide semiconductor sales were $34.5 billion in June, an improvement of 5% over June 2019 and slightly down from the prior month, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. For the three months of the second quarter, sales were flat compared to the first quarter.   In the Americas, sales for June reached $7.6 billion, up from $5.89 billion in June 2019.

Despite June’s improvement, the SIA warned of uncertainty in semi sales for the second half of the year due to COVID-19 and other headwinds.

Global semiconductor sales were $468.8 billion in 2018, then dropped by 12% to $412.3 billion in 2019, according to SIA.

U.S. semiconductor sales account for 47% of the global market, a position held since the late 1990s, according to SIA.  About a third of all semiconductors are used in communications, while 28% are used for computers and 12% are used for automotive, with another 12% for industrial.

Recently, analysts at TrendForce said the foundries that make chips and wafers often on contract from d from other chip companies who designed the chips will see a 14% jump in revenue in the third quarter.

The top 10 foundries in 2019 had revenues of $65 billion and were led by TSMC of Taiwan with $34.6 billion in revenues.