NEW YORK, December 28, 2025, 18:15 ET — Market closed
- Micron ended Friday down 0.6% at $284.79. [1]
- Shares are hovering near a 52-week high after a strong run tied to AI-related memory demand. [2]
- Investors are watching Fed minutes due Tuesday, Dec. 30, as year-end positioning keeps trading thin. [3]
Micron Technology (MU) shares ended the last U.S. trading session down 0.6% at $284.79. [4]
The move matters now because Micron has been one of the market’s clearest expressions of the rebound in AI-linked chip trades, with investors leaning on expectations that memory prices stay firm as data-center demand rises. [5]
Macro risks have also moved back to the front of the screen, with minutes from the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 9-10 meeting due Tuesday and traders focused on the path of interest rates into 2026. [6]
Wall Street closed nearly unchanged on Friday in a light-volume, post-Christmas session, and the main indexes finished slightly lower. “We’re just simply catching our breath today after the holiday,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. [7]
Micron’s pullback left the stock below its 52-week high of $290.87, after a year that has seen the shares rise more than 160%, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. [8]
The recent rally traces back to Micron’s quarterly outlook on Dec. 17, when the company forecast fiscal second-quarter adjusted profit of $8.42 per share, plus or minus 20 cents, versus analysts’ estimate of $4.78, according to LSEG data. [9]
Micron also projected revenue of $18.70 billion, plus or minus $400 million, above analysts’ estimate of $14.20 billion, LSEG data showed. [10]
Executives said the company would raise its 2026 capital spending plan to $20 billion from an earlier $18 billion estimate and was negotiating multiyear contracts with key customers. [11]
At the center of the thesis is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM — a high-speed memory chip used in AI servers to move data quickly between processors and memory. [12]
Micron is one of three major HBM suppliers alongside Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, Reuters reported earlier this month, a concentration that investors see as supporting pricing power during a supply squeeze. [13]
Analysts have warned that memory remains a cyclical business, with pricing swings that can reverse quickly if supply catches up, even as some firms describe the current upturn as longer-lasting than typical cycles. [14]
Before the next session, investors will be looking at year-end portfolio adjustments, which Reuters has flagged as a potential source of volatility when light trading volumes can exaggerate moves. [15]
Rates remain a key swing factor for chip valuations, and Reuters’ week-ahead preview highlighted Fed minutes on Tuesday, Dec. 30, as the main scheduled event that could shape expectations for 2026 rate cuts. [16]
Micron shareholders also face a calendar marker on Monday: the company said its quarterly dividend of $0.115 per share is payable Jan. 14 to holders of record as of the close of business on Dec. 29. [17]
On the charts, traders have been watching whether the stock can reclaim the $290 area near the 52-week high, while Friday’s low around $283 has become a near-term line in the sand. [18]
The broader “Santa Claus rally” window — the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the new year — runs through Jan. 5, and traders often treat it as a quick read on risk appetite heading into January. [19]
References
1. finance.yahoo.com, 2. www.reuters.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. finance.yahoo.com, 5. www.reuters.com, 6. www.reuters.com, 7. www.reuters.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. www.reuters.com, 10. www.reuters.com, 11. www.reuters.com, 12. www.reuters.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.reuters.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. investors.micron.com, 18. www.investing.com, 19. www.reuters.com
