By Callum Keown
Sandisk has been one of the hottest U.S. tech stocks over the past year but it's starting to cool off.
Shares of the memory storage company were down around 4% ahead of the open Tuesday, among the sharpest fallers in the S&P 500. The stock, up 635% this year, has fallen 23% over the past three trading days.
South Korean tech conglomerate Samsung looks to be to blame on this occasion. Not that it did much wrong. The memory-chip maker reported a 1,800% jump in profit in preliminary quarterly earnings that were released Tuesday.
But that wasn't enough for investors as the stock slumped 6.9% in Korean trading. The shares have had an incredible run, up 380% over the past year, and without any guidance offered investors may be viewing it as the perfect opportunity to take some profit.
However, the selling has spread to the U.S., and memory companies in particular. Chip maker Micron fell around 5%, while storage company Western Digital was down 6.7%.
Micron is down 15% in July, while Western Digital has fallen around 10% and Sandisk is 23% lower this month.
Sandisk's losing streak may well be just a blip. The stock had a four-day losing run in May, and a five-day slump in March before resuming its rally.
But the stock's bumper gains — it has climbed more than 3,750% over the past year — leave it susceptible to volatility. With memory-chip maker SK Hynix set to list in the U.S. on Friday, there could be more swings to come.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com
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