By Adam Clark
Micron Technology, Sandisk and Western Digital were rising sharply early Wednesday. Investors are piling back into the memory and storage trade amid relief about the U.S.-Iran cease-fire, with eyes on future price rises for the hardware.
Micron was up 8.6% in premarket trading, while Sandisk had gained 8.5%, Seagate Technology Holding had jumped 8.1%, and Western Digital had risen 7%. S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures had advanced 2.8%,
The announcement of a two-week cease-fire deal -- subject to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz -- has been taken as a signal to rush back into momentum trades, above all the play on the need for memory chips and hard drives for artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
There appears to be no let up in the demand in the near future. Analysts at UBS think prices for double data rate (DDR) memory rose an average 95% in the first quarter of the year from the preceding quarter, while NAND flash memory prices rose 80%. They expect DDR prices to go up a further 37% in the second quarter and NAND prices to rise 40%.
The all-important question is how long such price increases can last. Companies like Dell Technologies and HP Inc. have already announced they are raising prices on products to offset some of the margin pressures these cost increases are expected to have. Meanwhile, output of memory chips is expected to increase significantly from the middle of next year.
However, the UBS team expects the cycle of higher prices can continue until late 2027. Additionally, they think the rise of long-term supply agreements could see manufacturers escape the type of crash seen in previous memory-chip cycles.
"[Long-term agreements] should lead to lower peak memory contract pricing, and higher trough levels, in narrower bands than otherwise. We believe the main focus for those is DDR," UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois wrote in a research note.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 08, 2026 08:09 ET (12:09 GMT)
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