Hwang's Speech Fails to Boost Sentiment as Micron Struggles, US Stock Storage Sector Up in Pre-market, 92% of Institutional Analysts Still Maintain Buy Rating on MU

June 8 – NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang addressed last Friday’s broad selloff in AI-related stocks during a public event, emphasizing: “We are at the beginning of the AI revolution. Whatever happens in the stock market, you should be happy because you can now finally buy high-quality assets at a discount.” Huang added that global AI infrastructure is still in its early stages, and short-term market volatility amounts to a “discount coupon” for long-term investors. But Huang’s optimistic remarks failed to lift South Korean storage giant SK Hynix. Hit by the global tech stock rout, SK Hynix tumbled nearly 10% at the open of South Korea’s stock market, closing with a roughly 7.68% drop to 1.911 million Korean won—extending ongoing pressure on the AI memory sector. On the U.S. stock front, pre-market trading showed relative resilience: STX rose 2.53%, WDC gained 2.67%, SNDK climbed 2.62%, and Micron Technology (MU) advanced 4.2%. In a sharply different view, Raymond James financial analyst Kal Ackerman outlined a cautious outlook in his latest research note: “We expect average selling prices (ASPs) for DRAM and NAND to peak in mid-2026.” He added that ASPs for both chip types could start seeing consecutive quarterly declines as early as next year. Ackerman cited dual pressures capping price growth: On the supply side, Chinese memory makers ChangXin Memory and Yangtze Memory are aggressively expanding production. On the demand side, while AI servers are driving memory purchases, this is offset by weakened demand in other end markets. Still, he noted long-term pricing agreements will help mitigate some of this volatility. Ackerman maintained an “Outperform the Market” rating for Micron. Valuations have already shifted to reflect this: FactSet data shows Micron’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio jumped from 4.4x in April to 11.7x currently. Ackerman argues this valuation already factors in slowing contract price growth, compressed gross margins, and excess capacity over the next 12 to 24 months. Overall, CNN Markets data shows about 50 institutional analysts covering Micron: 92% assign a Buy or Strong Buy rating, 6% give a Hold, and only 2% issue a Sell.