Micron and SanDisk shares rebounded in US pre-market trading on Monday, clawing back a portion of last week's sharp declines as investors returned to technology stocks. Micron rose 2.6% to $901.76, while SanDisk advanced roughly 4% toward $1,350, following weekly drops of 14.6% and 17.9%, respectively.
The recovery was driven by a broader improvement in market sentiment rather than any company-specific news. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed around 1%, while Brent crude fell roughly 1.8% to near $107 a barrel after President Donald Trump relaxed some sanctions on Russia. The US 10-year Treasury yield also eased toward 5.085%, providing relief after rising borrowing costs had weighed on AI-related shares.
Prashant Bhayani, Asia chief investment officer at BNP Paribas, told the Financial Times that the absence of further escalation in the Iran conflict over the weekend helped steady market sentiment. These developments made last week's steep declines look more attractive to investors betting that the sell-off had gone too far.
However, cheaper oil and slightly lower yields do not directly improve Micron's or SanDisk's order books. The rebound primarily reflects a shift in investors' willingness to take on risk, rather than a change in the underlying fundamentals of the memory market.
China's breakthrough and the sell-off
Last week's rout was triggered by concerns over Chinese competition, particularly after ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) announced progress on a denser, more efficient DRAM design. The news raised fears that China could add capacity just as US and South Korean producers enjoy exceptional pricing power and profit margins.
For Micron, which sells DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI systems, this represents a potential competitive challenge. However, commercial production at scale remains unproven, especially in advanced HBM. For SanDisk, the link is weaker, as its core products use NAND flash—the storage technology found in solid-state drives—rather than the DRAM architecture highlighted by CXMT.
Technology writer Harsh Chauhan argued in The Motley Fool on Sunday that the sell-off in SanDisk seemed overdone, pointing to robust demand for enterprise solid-state drives and tight NAND supply as reasons the company's underlying outlook remains healthy. CXMT shares themselves fell around 8% in Shanghai on Monday despite reporting strong revenue expectations.
China's technological progress remains a long-term concern, but the market's broad-brush reaction obscured important differences between the two US companies.
Can memory demand sustain the recovery?
Both stocks still depend on an unusually strong memory market. Micron benefits from demand for advanced DRAM and HBM alongside AI processors, while SanDisk gains from cloud operators buying enterprise solid-state drives, with supply shortages supporting NAND prices.
The danger is that today's scarcity eventually encourages manufacturers to expand production. Memory prices have historically reversed sharply once new capacity catches up with demand, a cycle that investors have seen before.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
