Ahead of the US stock market opening on Thursday, the storage industry chain experienced a collective surge as funds shifted focus back to the "memory price hike" theme. Pre-market data showed that SanDisk (SNDK) rose nearly 8%, while Western Digital (WDC), Micron (MU), and Seagate (STX) all increased by more than 4%.
Pre-market: Storage Stocks Rise Across the Board, Price Hike Logic Prevails Again
From the pre-market performance, it is evident that the core of market trading is not based on individual company news but rather a bet on continued upstream price increases. As price expectations heat up, the "pro-cyclical elasticity" of the storage sector has once again become the top choice for short-term funds.
Supply and Demand Clues: TrendForce Reports Contract Prices Rising Continuously, DDR4 in Tighter Supply
The key driver of sentiment comes from institutional assessments of contract prices. TrendForce (DRAMeXchange) noted that in the fourth quarter of 2025, DRAM contract prices for multiple applications rose by over 40%, with significant upward trends expected into the first quarter of 2026; DDR4's supply-demand mismatch is particularly notable, and upward pressure may continue in subsequent quarters.
Underlying Structure: Capacities Siphoned by Servers and HBM, Traditional Markets Follow Suit Passively
Prices are easily driven up due to a structural capacity tilt: suppliers are allocating more advanced processes and additional resources to high-profit products like server memory and HBM to meet the needs of AI servers and data centers, thus squeezing the availability of traditional PC/consumer DRAM, strengthening bargaining power.
Future Focus: How Far the Price Hike Can Go Depends on Negotiations and Demand Resilience
Moving forward, the market will closely monitor two lines: one is the implementation strength of upstream prices in a new round of contract negotiations; the second is whether more apparent "demand deterrence" due to prices occurs in downstream markets (PCs, mobile phones, and some enterprise IT). It's worth noting that TrendForce has recently significantly raised its first-quarter 2026 expected quarterly price increase for traditional DRAM contracts to a range of 90%-95%, indicating that short-term supply and demand tension has not eased.
