SanDisk Surges 10% Following Post-Midterm Crash as Wall Street Debates Chip Demand

SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ:SNDK) stock rebounded about 10% in Friday premarket trading after plunging 22% Thursday, as investors reassessed whether the post-midterm selloff in AI-linked semiconductor and memory stocks had become overextended.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% before the bell, providing a firmer backdrop for high-beta chip names after Thursday’s broad market rout.

The selling followed a sharp rotation out of crowded AI and memory-stock positions after the U.S. midterm elections. Investors also weighed mixed read-throughs from Qualcomm and Arm Holdings, keeping attention on capacity constraints and the sustainability of semiconductor growth.

SanDisk Leads Memory Rebound After Sharp Selloff

SanDisk suffered one of the steepest declines in the memory group Thursday, falling 22%, while Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC) dropped 17%.

Other semiconductor names also came under heavy pressure. NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) fell 9.3% Thursday, erasing more than $400 billion from its market capitalization.

The broader technology rout wiped about $3.2 trillion in market value from U.S. equities in a single session, according to Financial Times calculations based on FactSet data.

The latest drop followed another semiconductor drawdown the prior week, when roughly $1 trillion in chip-sector market value disappeared.

Data-Center Scrutiny Raises Questions for Memory Demand

The selloff reflected concern that political resistance to new data-center construction could delay spending on AI chips, servers and memory products.

That matters for memory suppliers such as SanDisk because slower infrastructure buildouts could reduce demand for storage and related components tied to AI data centers.

The debate now centers on whether tighter permitting and construction rules merely push projects into later periods or materially weaken the longer-term semiconductor demand cycle.

Adam Sees Valuation Opportunity in Semiconductors

Raymond James CIO Larry Adam said the AI investment cycle remains intact and continues to favor semiconductor infrastructure stocks following the pullback.

Adam said some AI and semiconductor names now trade at roughly 30% discounts to their historical valuations, while next year’s earnings expectations remain healthy and continue moving higher.

He said he would gradually rebuild semiconductor exposure at current valuations.

Ives Turns More Cautious on Chip Spending

Yorkville Ives analyst Dan Ives has become more cautious on the semiconductor sector following the election.

Ives now assumes roughly 10% fewer data centers in his baseline case, with the reduction potentially reaching 15%-20%. He also expects Big Tech capital-spending growth to peak in 2027, earlier than his prior 2028-2029 expectation.

Ives said he now prefers software over semiconductors, though he still views the AI infrastructure buildout as becoming more elongated rather than ending.

Technical Picture Remains Weak

Despite Friday’s rebound, SanDisk remains well below its major moving averages.

At $896.68, the stock trades about 30% below its 20-day SMA, about 41% below its 50-day SMA, about 43% below its 100-day SMA and about 29% below its 200-day SMA.

SanDisk has still more than tripled over the past 12 months, but the current positioning keeps its intermediate trend under pressure until the stock begins reclaiming key moving averages.

Analysts Remain Divided

SanDisk carries a Buy consensus rating with an average price forecast of $2,176.43.

Recent actions include Fox Advisors downgrading the stock to Equal-Weight on Nov. 2, Rosenblatt maintaining Buy with a $2,400 forecast on Oct. 30 and Wells Fargo maintaining Equal-Weight while lowering its forecast to $1,300 on Oct. 30.

The stock also carries sizable weights in the Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF (NYSE:RPG), First Trust US Equity Opportunities ETF (NYSE:FPX) and Invesco S&P Spin-Off ETF (NYSE:CSD), leaving it exposed to fund flows alongside company-specific and broader semiconductor sentiment.

How SanDisk Compares With Storage Peers

SanDisk has still far outpaced its storage peers over the past year. Through Thursday’s close, the stock was up about 289% over 12 months, compared with gains of about 89% for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, 68% for Seagate Technology, 64% for Western Digital and 49% for NetApp, while Everpure was roughly flat.

SanDisk’s lead was far wider at its late-June peak, when the stock was up more than 1,000% over the same period, before a steep slide that Thursday’s 22% drop extended.

Price Action

SNDK Stock Price Activity: SanDisk shares were up 10.30% at $889.53 during premarket trading on Friday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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