US Stock Market Move | Storage sector stocks rose across the board, with Western Digital Corporation (WDC.US) surging nearly 10% after its performance report.

On Friday, the storage sector rose across the board in early trading. Western Digital Corporation (WDC.US) surged nearly 10% after its earnings, SanDisk (SNDK.US) rose over 4%, Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.US), and Seagate Technology Holdings PLC (STX.US) rose over 1%. On the news front, Western Digital Corporation reported a 27.4% year-on-year increase in Q3 revenue, reaching $2.82 billion, higher than analysts' expectations of $2.74 billion, exceeding expectations by 2.8%. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were $1.78, higher than analysts' expectations of $1.58, exceeding expectations by 12.9%. Western Digital Corporation CEO Irving Tan stated, "In a strong market environment driven by the growth in cloud data storage demand, Western Digital Corporation continues to operate well. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, our revenue and gross margin both exceeded the upper end of the guidance range, while achieving strong free cash flow."