Micron Technology (MU) stock suffered an 8.02% drop on Tuesday, continuing its slide into Thursday premarket trading as a confluence of negative catalysts shook the memory chip giant. The sell-off began after Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies announced plans for an $8.5 billion initial public offering to aggressively expand DRAM production.
Adding fuel to the fire, reports emerged that Apple is actively testing ChangXin’s chips for use in its Chinese market devices. The prospect of a key customer shifting sourcing toward a state-backed Chinese competitor hit investor sentiment hard, breaking Micron’s $900 support level and triggering a broader memory sector pullback that also dragged down peer SK Hynix.
Further pressure came from ASML, which disclosed that its extreme ultraviolet lithography machines can now produce memory chips more efficiently—a development set to benefit Samsung and SK Hynix. Meanwhile, a Reuters report revealed that cloud provider CoreWeave was exploring financial hedges against a potential drop in memory prices, rattling an already nervous market. Compounding the sell-off, leveraged ETFs tied to memory-chip stocks sharply amplified the decline, with J.P. Morgan noting aggregated leveraged memory ETF assets shrank 34% since June.
Despite the rout, Micron’s fundamentals remain robust. Analysts still project earnings of $31.24 per share on $50.72 billion in revenue for the upcoming September quarter. Wall Street maintains a consensus Buy rating with an average price target of $1,548.86, and KeyBanc raised its target to $1,750. However, the near-term technical picture is bearish, with the stock trading 14.9% below its 20-day moving average.
