Micron and SanDisk led the surge, and the storage sector led the rebound in U.S. stocks

# Bao Yilong

Source: Wallstreetcn

The memory storage sector surged 8% in a single day. Micron Technology, SanDisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology all rose more than 8%. Analysts believe the AI-driven demand logic for storage remains intact, allowing related stocks to benefit first as market sentiment rebounds.

Tech momentum stocks staged a strong comeback, with the memory and data storage sector leading the market higher on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, April 1, U.S. stocks rose for the second consecutive trading day. Technology stocks propelled the Nasdaq up more than 1%, with the memory storage sector jumping 8% on the day, marking the second-largest single-day gain in the index’s history.

Among individual stocks, Micron Technology surged nearly 9%, SanDisk climbed more than 9%; data storage giants Western Digital and Seagate Technology rose 10% and 8% respectively.

This rally reflects a clear shift in investor sentiment. As the second quarter began, market capital rotated back into tech momentum stocks from the defensive energy sector.

## Momentum stocks rebound strongly, reversing March slump

In March, investors dumped tech stocks heavily amid escalating tensions over the Iran conflict and rotated into defensive sectors such as energy, with memory and storage stocks bearing the brunt of the sell-off.

Analysts said this week’s capital return signals a notable recovery in risk appetite to start the second quarter.

The Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF rose 3.2% on Wednesday. SanDisk and Micron Technology both rank among its top ten holdings. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs’ Momentum Stock Index also rose sharply for two consecutive days.

Micron, SanDisk, Western Digital, and Seagate are classic representatives of the momentum investment style.

Last year, all four ranked among the best-performing S&P 500 components with triple-digit percentage gains, driven primarily by surging demand for memory chips and data storage fueled by the artificial intelligence boom.

This fundamental backdrop provided underlying support for the latest rebound. With expectations of sustained expansion in AI-related capital expenditure, the long-term demand narrative for the memory and storage sector remains intact, allowing these stocks to outperform early as sentiment improves.

## Server demand is the real engine supporting storage fundamentals

Previously, concerns over sharply reduced memory usage triggered by Google’s new TurboQuant compression algorithm, combined with concentrated selling by early speculative investors, led to a nearly 30% plunge in DDR5 memory module prices at U.S. and Chinese retail channels.

As Wallstreetcn noted earlier, despite panic over a “price collapse” in the retail market, Wall Street and industry research institutions emphasized that the spot market consists mainly of PC and consumer electronics products, accounting for only a low single-digit percentage of total market trading volume.

Looking past the noise in the spot market, demand signals from the server segment remain clear and strong.

Recent reports from Goldman Sachs and South Korean brokerage Daishin Securities both noted that the enterprise contract market has not been affected. Major cloud service providers continue to have urgent demand for server memory, and the supply-demand fundamentals have not seen a material reversal.

According to Goldman Sachs, combined revenue of Taiwan-based server ODMs (including Inventec, Quanta, Wistron NeWeb, and Wistron) rose 84% year-on-year and 7% month-on-month in February, maintaining over 80% year-on-year growth for four consecutive months. This was mainly driven by the rapid ramp-up of rack-scale AI server shipments and strong growth in ASIC-based AI servers.

Aspeed, the world’s largest supplier of server BMC chips, posted 66% year-on-year revenue growth in February, remaining solid despite a high comparison base in February 2025. Supreme Electronics, a storage distributor, recorded a 137% year-on-year revenue increase in February, signaling robust channel-level demand.

Daishin Securities’ channel survey also revealed a telling detail: a major cloud service provider has decided to purchase server DDR4 at a price exceeding that of HBM3e. Ryu Hyung-geun wrote:

“If genuine demand were already weakening, there would be no explanation for buyers willing to pay a premium for legacy products.”

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