New York, Jan 16, 2026, 08:34 (ET) — Premarket
- Micron shares jump in premarket trading following a director’s reveal of a sizable stock buy
- Memory-chip stocks climb alongside chipmakers, boosting index futures
- Traders are eyeing the open, the earnings calendar for next week, and Micron’s upcoming quarterly report
Micron Technology (MU.O) shares jumped 5.7% to $355.65 in premarket trading Friday, following a close of $336.63 the day before. According to a regulatory filing, director Teyin Mark Liu bought 23,200 shares between Jan. 13-14 at roughly $337 each and now holds 25,910 shares. 1
Memory-chip stocks continue to lead semiconductor gains this week. Western Digital (WDC.O), Seagate Technology (STX.O), and SanDisk (SNDK.O) all climbed in early trading, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF edged higher Friday, Reuters reported. Linh Tran, senior market analyst at XS.com, noted that the next market move “will likely depend more on genuine corporate earnings growth.” 2
Retail traders are betting heavily on memory chips, banking on AI-driven demand to keep supplies tight and prices high. Samsung co-CEO TM Roh described the shortage as “unprecedented” in a Reuters interview highlighted in a recent report. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, noted memory chips remain “among the themes that are exciting our customers.” 3
Thursday’s environment gave chipmakers a boost. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s announcement of strong growth and expanded U.S. capacity eased a brief concern over lofty tech valuations, said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates, in a Reuters interview. 4
Citi bumped up its price target on Micron to $385 from $330, maintaining a Buy rating, per a note seen on TipRanks. The bank also warned that Micron’s DRAM pricing momentum — the rate of memory price changes from quarter to quarter — “will likely slow” in Q2 compared to Q1. 5
DRAM, or dynamic random-access memory, powers servers, PCs, and smartphones. A rapidly growing segment of that market is high-bandwidth memory, a type of DRAM designed to work alongside AI processors. Micron’s profit margins tend to shift dramatically when prices fluctuate.
Insider buying isn’t a sure bet. The memory market has often overshot expectations. If supply bounces back sooner than anticipated or AI-driven demand slows, prices could reverse sharply, wiping out gains in no time.
With U.S. markets closed on Monday and a surge of earnings reports scheduled for next week, traders will be eyeing if Friday’s gains can hold once the regular session kicks off.
Micron’s next big event is its quarterly earnings report, slated for about March 18 per Yahoo Finance’s calendar — a key moment to see updated data on demand, pricing, and the duration of the memory supply crunch. 6
