Western Digital shares plummeted 5.37% during Monday's intraday trading session, erasing earlier pre-market gains as broad-based selling hit the storage sector.
The decline was driven by lingering NAND industry bearish rumors that first surfaced on July 24, including reports of SanDisk signing a low-price long-term supply agreement with Meta, cloud vendors pressuring QLC eSSD pricing, and weak domestic CSP procurement demand. These concerns continued to weigh on sentiment, overpowering the storage sector's pre-market rebound.
Despite a bullish note from Wedbush Securities, which raised its price target on Western Digital to $650 from $540 ahead of the company's earnings report, the negative overhang persisted. Peer SanDisk plunged 8.18%, while Seagate Technology fell 1.97%, reflecting clear profit-taking and sector-wide weakness.