Micron Drops on Fresh China Concerns

Shares of Micron Technology (MU:US) are trading lower on Friday after China’s top body for cyberspace said it will review the company’s products sold in the country.

This way, China works to protect its national security and critical information infrastructure, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a short statement on Friday.

The actions are taken in accordance with the “National Security Law of the People's Republic of China" and "Network Security Law of the People's Republic of China", the regulator added.

Such actions are not surprising given the ongoing feud between the U.S. and China pertaining to the high-end chip technology. The former previously imposed a series of actions aimed at China’s chipmakers.

Earlier on Friday, Japan said it will side with the U.S. to hurt China’s ability to make advanced chips. 

On the other hand, Micron said last year that it will close its DRAM design operations facility in Shanghai. 

Earlier this week, Micron reported Q2 results that missed Wall Street estimates but share still gained as the results were better than feared. The company reported a loss per share of $1.91 on revenue of $3.69 billion, which compared to the consensus for a loss per share of $0.66 on sales of $3.74 billion.

"Our expectations for calendar 2023 industry bit demand growth have moderated to approximately 5% in DRAM and low-teens percentage range in NAND, which are well below the expected long-term CAGR of mid-teens percentage range in DRAM and low 20s percentage range in NAND," Micron said.

Congressman Ro Khanna was actively traded Micron shares in recent months. He was mostly leaning short in January, when he reported several trades involving Micron shares. Rep. Diana Harshbarger was also selling MU shares in recent months, as well as her colleagues Nancy Pelosi and Michael McCaul.