New York, Jan 7, 2026, 11:09 EST — Regular session
- Western Digital shares down about 8% after a record close in the prior session
- Tuesday’s jump followed Nvidia CES remarks on a new AI storage layer; peers SanDisk, Seagate and Micron also hit records
- Focus turns to Friday’s U.S. jobs report and Western Digital’s next earnings update in early February
Western Digital (WDC) shares fell 7.9% to $201.99 in late morning trade on Wednesday, pulling back from Tuesday’s $219.38 close. The stock was down as much as about 11% earlier in the session.
The swing shows how fast the market is repricing storage names as the AI trade widens beyond chips into the hardware that holds and feeds data. Western Digital has moved like a sentiment gauge this week, not a slow-and-steady industrial.
That matters now because investors are trying to map big talk at CES into near-term demand, with earnings season around the corner. Macro is in the mix too: a shift in rate-cut bets can hit high-growth tech and the stocks riding alongside it.
Western Digital climbed about 17% on Tuesday as memory and storage stocks rallied after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, highlighted a new layer of storage technology. SanDisk jumped more than 27%, Seagate gained 14% and Micron rose 10%, with all four hitting record highs, Reuters reported. 1
Huang said Nvidia’s next generation of chips is in “full production” and described a storage layer he called “context memory storage,” aimed at helping chatbots answer long conversations faster. Storage suppliers were among the beneficiaries as investors leaned into the idea that bigger models need more memory and more drives. 2
Wall Street was mixed on Wednesday after two strong sessions, with traders sifting U.S. job openings data and a private payrolls report ahead of the government’s employment report. “Investors could stay cautious over the next couple of days,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. 3
Some investors see the pullback as noise in a bigger build-out story. “All those capex estimates that we hear about are going to be revised higher again,” said Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital, using Wall Street shorthand for capital spending. 4
Western Digital sells hard disk drives and flash storage used in PCs and data centers. The stock has tracked the wider storage group in recent days, moving alongside Seagate and flash maker SanDisk.
But the trade cuts both ways. If AI spending slows, or if the industry adds supply faster than demand grows, prices for storage parts can fall and the recent momentum can unwind.
Next up: the U.S. Employment Situation report on Friday (Jan. 9) and Western Digital’s next earnings report, which Nasdaq flags as expected on Feb. 4. Traders are also watching whether the shares hold the $200 area after Tuesday’s record close. 5
