New York, March 5, 2026, 10:31 (EST)
- Sandisk slipped roughly 0.6% in morning trade, pulling back after bouncing sharply the previous day.
- Oil prices ticking higher on Middle East supply concerns have prompted investors to shuffle positions in memory and storage stocks.
- Whether this conflict ends up stoking inflation concerns and curbing tech budgets is what analysts see as the deciding factor for the next move.
Sandisk shares edged down 0.6% to $595.67 early Thursday, giving back some ground after volatile trading earlier this week. Investors have been navigating war-fueled turbulence across global markets.
Oil prices pressed higher, extending gains as concerns over a deepening U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran rattled supply outlooks and squeezed shipping lanes. Brent hovered near $84 per barrel, with tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz—one of the world’s critical oil corridors—almost grinding to a stop, according to Reuters. UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo pointed to further attacks on tankers in the Gulf and new Chinese curbs on fuel exports as factors that have fueled the latest price jump. Reuters
Sharp moves in oil are grabbing attention, especially as so much cash has flowed into AI-heavy tech and memory stocks. A spike in energy costs can reignite inflation fears fast. “That combination is giving the market some optimism, which will be tested over the coming weeks,” said Jim Awad, senior managing director at Clearstead Advisors, following Wednesday’s tech bounce. Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Advisors pointed to the war’s timeline as a likely catalyst for fresh volatility. Reuters
Sandisk’s wild swings stood out this week. Shares tumbled 8.7% Tuesday, closing at $565.41. By Wednesday, they bounced back 5.95% to hit $599.06, Reuters data showed. The stock then edged lower Thursday. Reuters
Stocks tumbled across Wall Street on Tuesday, with investors trying to gauge if the conflict will drag on—pushing prices higher and throwing off central bank plans. “It’s spreading and starting to potentially impact energy infrastructure,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive at Horizon Investment Services. Oliver Pursche, a senior vice president at Wealthspire Advisors, put it bluntly: “This is the fear of it getting worse.” Reuters
The selloff hit Asia harder: South Korea’s KOSPI tumbled 12.1% on Wednesday—its steepest single-day percentage loss ever. Samsung Electronics slid 11.7%, SK Hynix lost 9.6%, according to Reuters. “This looks more like a positioning unwind and risk reduction,” said Tareck Horchani of Maybank Securities, referencing the heavy positioning in crowded trades. Reuters
Sandisk, headquartered in Milpitas, California, is in the business of developing and marketing NAND flash storage products. These memory chips—NAND flash—are what power devices like solid-state drives (SSDs), letting them store data without any moving disks. According to Reuters data, the company’s SSDs and other flash-based products land in cloud infrastructure, client systems, and consumer segments. Reuters
The “AI buildout” story has been fueling the stock as data centers ramp up both storage and compute needs. Back in late January, Sandisk shares jumped after the company put out a quarterly profit and revenue forecast that topped Wall Street’s expectations, citing AI-fueled demand, according to Reuters. Reuters
Peers are facing similar conditions. Micron Technology stands out as the closest U.S. proxy for memory chips. Western Digital and Seagate, on the other hand, offer a blend of storage hardware—sometimes going head-to-head with flash-based products, other times filling in the gaps depending on the task.
But that story can flip fast. Memory markets run in cycles: prices jump when supply is scarce, then drop as new production ramps up. If oil stays high for long, consumers and companies might pull back, and even AI spending—seen as a sure bet—turns uncertain, potentially catching investors off guard.
At the moment, traders are glued to both oil prices and Gulf news, just as much as to their earnings spreadsheets. Sandisk’s next move? It probably depends on how energy-fueled inflation shakes out, and if appetite for premium storage continues to soak up what’s on the market.
