New York, February 16, 2026, 15:22 EST — Markets have shut for the day.
Sandisk Corp (SNDK.O) will face its next trading session on Tuesday, following Monday’s U.S. Presidents Day market closure. Shares ended Friday off 0.5% at $626.56, swinging between a low of $586.40 and a high of $661.36 before the bell. (Reuters)
The pause is catching attention as investors begin balking at hefty artificial intelligence budgets. That’s been bleeding into market pricing for much of the broader AI supply chain. Shares of some of the biggest tech names have shed a chunk of their value this year, with investors now doubting that sizable AI investments will pay off quickly enough to justify swollen valuations. (Reuters)
Sandisk finds itself on the opposite end of that debate. Bulls have latched onto it as a straight shot at the storage crunch fueled by AI data centers—a setup that can send the stock bouncing around whenever sentiment changes, even if there’s no new headline from the company.
Sandisk turned in $3.03 billion in revenue for its fiscal second quarter and put out a forecast for the third quarter, looking for $4.40 billion to $4.80 billion. CEO David Goeckeler called attention to “accelerating enterprise SSD deployments” this quarter, pointing to AI-driven infrastructure demand. SSDs—solid-state drives—are found in both servers and PCs. (Sandisk)
Peers headed into the long weekend with no clear direction. Micron Technology climbed 3.3% on Friday. Seagate Technology was up roughly 0.2%. Western Digital, the former parent, edged down about 0.9%.
On Tuesday, the focus lands on Sandisk: can it keep its gains after earnings, or will the holiday gap tempt traders to cash out? Friday’s broad price swings point to an unsettled battle between buyers and sellers.
The bullish argument here hangs on memory staying tight. NAND flash, which powers SSDs and much of consumer storage, goes through cycles; prices drop fast when supply outpaces demand or large buyers hit the brakes on orders.
Macro is in play, too. The Federal Reserve drops minutes from its Jan. 27-28 meeting this Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 2 p.m. ET—a release with the potential to shake up both rate bets and tech multiples. (Federal Reserve)
Feb. 25 is circled on the calendar for AI hardware watchers. Nvidia’s fourth-quarter earnings call kicks off at 5 p.m. ET, and investors will be listening closely—these calls have become a key read on AI data-center investment. (Nvidia)
