NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 10:44 ET — Regular session
Key points
- Sandisk shares fell about 4% in morning trade, extending a volatile stretch for the high-flying storage name.
- The move followed a weekend rating cut by Wall Street Zen, even as the firm kept a “buy” view. 1
- Traders are also bracing for thin holiday liquidity and Tuesday’s release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes. 2
Sandisk Corp shares fell 4.3% to $239.37 on Monday, after swinging between $236.64 and $249.84 in early trading.
The drop matters because Sandisk has been one of 2025’s standout gainers, leaving the stock more sensitive to shifts in sentiment and analyst calls into year-end. Kiplinger listed Sandisk as the S&P 500’s top performer for 2025, with a roughly sixfold rise. 3
The pullback also lands in a seasonally quiet week, with U.S. markets closed Thursday for New Year’s Day and investors watching Tuesday’s Federal Reserve minutes for clues on the path of rates. 2
“If demand declines, long-term Treasury yields should stay elevated to attract new buyers,” said Collin Martin, head of fixed income research and strategy at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. 2
A softer tape in mega-cap tech added to the pressure. The Invesco QQQ Trust, a widely watched Nasdaq-100 exchange-traded fund, was down about 0.5%.
Sandisk’s stock was also digesting a weekend analyst move. Wall Street Zen lowered its rating to “buy” from “strong-buy” in a research note dated Saturday, MarketBeat reported. 1
Investors tend to treat downgrades differently when momentum names are crowded and liquidity is thin, because small reallocations can push prices sharply in either direction. Schwab said trading could remain thin this week, making trends harder to read. 2
Sandisk underperformed storage peers on the day. Western Digital fell 1.7% and Seagate Technology slipped 1.4%, while memory-chip maker Micron Technology was little changed.
Sandisk makes NAND flash-based storage products — NAND is a type of memory used in solid-state drives — selling into cloud, client and consumer markets, according to Reuters company information. 4
The company returned to public markets this year after separating from Western Digital, an SEC filing shows. 5
The stock’s surge in 2025 has been tied to the race to build AI data centers, which has boosted demand for storage and memory components. Kiplinger said stronger-than-expected data-center demand has supported Sandisk’s pricing and margins, and noted the company was added to the S&P 500 in November. 3
What traders are watching next is less about Monday’s tape and more about the next macro and demand signals: the Fed minutes at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, and whether rates and risk appetite keep favoring high-multiple tech. 6
For Sandisk specifically, investors will be looking for the next update on flash pricing, supply conditions and enterprise demand tied to AI servers — themes that have powered the stock’s 2025 run, but can reverse quickly when expectations reset. 3
