Reading time ( words) This week’s biggest news came in the form of industry briefings—there were a lot of them and the news was universally positive. The news you need to read for this week includes three reports from IPC detailing: the strength and risks in the global economic recovery; a strong EMS book-to-bill ratio; and strong North American PCB sales. Zeroing in on a single company, Apple reported a significant jump in revenue. On the governmental issues front, SEMI offered its support to the introduction of the Endless Frontier Act, intending to improve U.S.-based semiconductor development. We round off the list with Pete Starkey’s report on the EIPC Technical Snapshot session, this time analyzing material pricing pressures and supply chain issues.