NEW YORK, January 1, 2026, 09:58 ET — Market closed
- Micron shares last fell 2.5% to $285.41 in the final 2025 session; U.S. markets are shut Thursday for New Year’s Day.
- China’s CXMT is seeking a $4.22 billion IPO to expand DRAM and invest in high-bandwidth memory, adding a new competitive watchpoint.
- Investors look to Friday’s reopen, early-January U.S. jobs data and the Fed’s late-January meeting for direction.
Micron Technology (MU.O) was last at $285.41, down $7.21, or 2.5%, from the prior close after trading between $284.19 and $293.91 in the final session of 2025. U.S. stock markets are closed on Thursday for the New Year’s Day holiday.
The memory-chip maker enters 2026 with investors still focused on demand tied to artificial intelligence servers, where tight supply has supported pricing. In its latest quarterly outlook, Micron projected second-quarter revenue of $18.7 billion, plus or minus $400 million, and adjusted earnings of $8.42 per share, after reporting first-quarter revenue of $13.64 billion, a filing showed.
Year-end trading was light, and profit-taking weighed on technology shares as the S&P 500 fell 0.74% and the Nasdaq slid 0.76% in Wednesday’s session, Reuters reported. “When liquidity was low, you get profit-taking opportunities,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity. Reuters
Investors are also parsing signs that new capacity is coming. China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) said in a prospectus it plans to raise 29.5 billion yuan ($4.22 billion) in a Shanghai listing to fund DRAM expansion and invest in higher-end memory. CXMT said it held 4% of the global DRAM market in the second quarter and expects production at a new packaging facility in Shanghai to start by end-2026 as it pushes into high-bandwidth memory used alongside AI processors such as Nvidia’s GPUs.
DRAM, short for dynamic random access memory, is a workhorse chip used in everything from PCs to data centers. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is a stacked version designed to feed data-hungry processors faster, making it central to AI accelerators.
Micron has told investors that sustained demand and supply constraints are contributing to tight market conditions and that it expects those conditions to persist beyond calendar 2026. The company also said it is making progress with customers on multiyear contracts with specific commitments.
Traders are watching memory pricing, customer order visibility and any hints that rivals are adding capacity faster than demand is growing. In a cyclical business, even small changes in supply expectations can swing sentiment quickly.
Before the next session, the immediate test comes when U.S. trading resumes on Friday after the holiday. The first full week of January can bring sharp moves as investors reposition after year-end window dressing.
The macro calendar will also steer risk appetite. The Labor Department is due to release its monthly employment report for December 2025 on Jan. 9, and the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27-28.
On the company calendar, Micron said two directors will retire at its annual shareholders meeting expected on Jan. 15. Market calendars peg Micron’s next earnings report for March 19 after the close, though the company has not confirmed the date.
