Micron (MU) wiped out roughly $100 billion in market value at Tuesday’s low — and chip bulls still bought the dip.
The stock was tracking its worst day in more than a year before buyers stepped in, turning a near-breakdown into the latest stress test for the AI-memory trade.
The latest supply scare added fuel to the Micron rebound. Samsung’s labor standoff has raised the risk of an 18-day strike that could hit memory-chip production, reinforcing the buy-the-dip case for MU.
Micron has become a bellwether for the AI-memory trade, and Tuesday’s flush showed traders are still leaning into that scarcity story instead of walking away from it.
This is where a candlestick chart helps, particularly because its shadows — also called tails, or wicks — show where buyers and sellers are pushing, and where they got rejected.
On Monday, Micron flashed an evening star candlestick pattern after traders rejected the stock above $800, a potentially bearish setup after such a steep run.
But Tuesday flipped the message: sellers drove the stock toward the $700 area, and buyers came in hard enough to leave a long lower tail — the chart’s clearest sign that the dip got bought with force.
The same message is showing up across chips.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index (^SOX) also bounced well off Tuesday’s lows, while major names including Nvidia (NVDA), Broadcom (AVGO), Texas Instruments (TXN), Analog Devices (ADI), ON Semiconductor (ON), and Seagate (STX) either hit fresh record highs Tuesday or rallied near record territory.
Even the more speculative corners are still catching a bid. Wolfspeed (WOLF) has been ripping after Citrini Research highlighted the chipmaker’s potential, adding another sign that risk appetite in semis has not disappeared.
Micron is still up more than 170% this year and under 1% from Monday’s all-time closing high.
Hold the $700 zone, and Tuesday looks like a shakeout. Lose it, and Micron’s stress test turns into a bigger problem for the chip rally.
Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.
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