Micron, SanDisk, Marvell Slip Ahead of SK Hynix Nasdaq Debut

Shares of Micron, SanDisk and Marvell fell in premarket trading Friday as investors prepared for SK Hynix’s Nasdaq debut. Micron slipped about 2.6%, SanDisk dropped more than 3.8% and Marvell eased roughly 2%. Lam Research fell about 3.4%, Western Digital declined 2.78% and Seagate lost about 2.5%. Broader chip names also retreated, with Intel down about 2.6% and Nvidia and AMD each down under 1%.

SK Hynix priced 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each, raising roughly $26.5 billion in its U.S. offering. The listing was the largest-ever U.S. listing by a foreign company. The company issued 17.79 million new common shares, represented by the 177.9 million ADSs, with 10 ADSs equal to one Seoul-listed common share. Reports showed investor demand exceeded available shares by more than seven times.

Market participants said some investors could rotate capital from Micron into SK Hynix now that the South Korean firm is trading on a major U.S. exchange. Thomas Hughes of MarketBeat warned investors might take profits in Micron to buy SK Hynix and estimated Micron could trade sideways or face further declines after falling more than 20% from post-earnings highs in early July; he added the stock could shed another 30% before hitting solid support.

Trader and analyst Dmytro Lebid argued the Nasdaq listing should remove a long-standing ‘Korean discount’ that kept SK Hynix’s multiples lower because some U.S. investors faced barriers to buying shares on Korea’s KOSPI. He pointed to a P/E around 18.3x for SK Hynix versus roughly 22.0x for Micron and said the U.S. listing could attract additional institutional capital and lift sector valuation benchmarks.

Analysts and traders also noted the listing expands access for U.S. funds and could prompt portfolio rebalancing across memory names, potentially increasing trading volumes in the sector. SK Hynix is a major memory supplier to large technology customers including Nvidia. Premarket trading on Friday suggested at least some short-term repositioning among investors.