New York, January 12, 2026, 12:22 EST — Regular session
- Western Digital shares climbed roughly 2% by midday, bucking the weaker broader market trend
- Shares of storage rivals Seagate, Micron, and SanDisk also climbed
- Traders are eyeing upcoming inflation figures and the kickoff of major bank earnings for the next market move
Shares of Western Digital (WDC.O) climbed 2.1% to $204.76 by midday Monday, bouncing around between $193.35 and $206.37 during a choppy session.
The rise occurred as U.S. stocks dipped amid renewed political pressure on the Federal Reserve, casting doubt on the central bank’s independence. Financial stocks also took a hit from a proposed cap on credit-card interest rates. “It’s another dent to the armor” of Fed independence, said Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer at GammaRoad Capital Partners. 1
Shares of Seagate Technology climbed roughly 2.4%. Micron Technology nudged up 0.4%, and SanDisk ticked higher by 1.3%.
The group has seen volatile swings this month, sparked by a surge in memory and storage stocks linked to AI infrastructure spending. That momentum followed comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at CES. 2
Western Digital has restructured by spinning off its flash business. The company disclosed in a filing that it finalized the separation of its Flash unit in February 2025 by distributing Sandisk shares to Western Digital shareholders. Following this, Western Digital no longer consolidates Sandisk in its financial results. 3
Western Digital is now more tied to hard disk drives for cloud data centers, where buyers place large, irregular orders. On days like today, its shares behave more like an “AI plumbing” play than your average PC hardware stock.
Monday’s tape carried a nervous edge. Even a rebound in storage stocks doesn’t resolve the bigger issue investors face: will policy risk and inflation keep yields high, putting pressure on richly valued growth shares?
Another straightforward risk lies in storage’s cyclical nature. Prices can shift rapidly if cloud clients burn through stock or if new capacity ramps up. Just a handful of cautious quarters from hyperscalers would quickly hit order books.
Traders are now focused on upcoming U.S. inflation data — specifically the Consumer Price Index, a critical gauge of price pressures — along with a slew of corporate earnings starting Tuesday, headlined by JPMorgan and BNY. Andrew Lilley, chief rates strategist at Barrenjoey, warned that “Trump is pulling at the loose threads of central bank independence.” 4
