U. S.
memory chip stocks declined sharply during premarket trading on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, following a steep sell-off in South Korean semiconductor giants that briefly dragged the Kospi index into a bear market.
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Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. shares both dropped 5% in early trading, while SanDisk Corp.
shed 4.8%.
The Roundhill Memory ETF, which counts Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. among its top three holdings, fell 5.8%.
Broader Semiconductor Impact
The sell-off also affected other major semiconductor companies. Intel Corp.
and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. dropped over 3% each, while Nvidia Corp. slipped nearly 1%.
This slide followed widespread profit-taking on South Korea's Kospi index, where heavily weighted chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix fell 6.9% and 6.1%, respectively.
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The Kospi plummeted by as much as 8.2% at one point, briefly entering a technical bear market defined as a 20% decline from its recent peak.
The losses occurred despite Samsung projecting a stellar 19-fold surge in second-quarter operating profit to 89.4 trillion won ($58.44 billion) alongside a 129% revenue increase.
Retail investors on the social platform Stocktwits expressed highly optimistic sentiments for SanDisk and Micron, viewing the market pullback as a potential buying opportunity.
"$MU this is not the first time for the melt-down. If you have been here long enough, you know how the game is played.
If you have a weak heart, please step off the next exit," said a trader, Stocktwits User.
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Year-to-date data shows Micron shares have gained 245% and SanDisk shares have surged 635%, even as memory stocks currently trade well below the historical peaks they achieved last month.
