TradingKey – Western Digital slips over 3% ahead of earnings, faces potential 18% plunge to $300 mark if results disappoint.

On October 22 Eastern Time, Western Digital (WDC)’s stock rebound stalled, falling 3.4% in pre-market trading to $365.71. On Monday (October 19), Western Digital’s stock fell to $330, touching its April low for the year while expanding its year-to-date maximum drawdown to 58%.

WDC’s sharp drop ahead of earnings was mainly driven by slowing demand for PCs and smartphones. Although demand for cloud and enterprise nearline hard drives remains strong, consumer PC and NAND Flash prices showed weakness in Q4, triggering a de-rating by quantitative funds on the gross margins of its legacy Flash business.

In addition,…