Chips, Shipwrecks, and 8,300: Kospi Sails Back as Samsung and SK Hynix Steer the Rebound 📈

South Korea's Kospi index climbed as much as 2.7 percent Monday, with the tech-heavy benchmark briefly trading above 8,300 points before easing toward 8,150. The advance was led by chipmakers, with Samsung Electronics rising as much as 4 percent and SK Hynix gaining as much as 1.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 crossed 70,000 points, up 0.73 percent, as Kioxia added nearly 1 percent. SoftBank was the notable decliner, falling more than 2 percent. The moves extend a volatile period for Korean chip stocks that has included repeated trading halts in 2026 amid AI-driven swings, memory pricing disputes, and trillion-dollar investment pledges from the sector's biggest names.

The session also comes after the Kospi's sharpest recent reversals. On Thursday, July 9, the index peaked at 7,539, a gain of nearly 4 percent from Wednesday's close of 7,246.79, pulling the benchmark back above the bear-market threshold it had crossed a day earlier. Wednesday's drop of 5.35 percent had marked the Kospi's lowest level since May 20 and put it more than 20 percent below the June 22 record of 9,114.55. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led that decline after a slump in U.S. semiconductor shares, while concerns over leveraged single-stock ETFs triggered a sidecar trading halt. Other Kospi components posted smaller moves Monday, with Hyundai Motor and Hanwha Aerospace up modestly and LG Energy Solution slipping. The won weakened to 1,533.90 against the dollar, down 8.3 won from Friday's close.

Samsung's preliminary second-quarter results are due Tuesday and are likely to shape the next leg of the trade. Investors are weighing whether AI infrastructure spending is translating into earnings power after a stretch in which the Kospi has flashed warning signs over stretched AI chip valuations. Kiwoom Securities analyst Han Ji-young pointed to spillover from prior-session weakness, slowing memory-price growth, and uncertainty over whether chipmaker earnings have peaked. SK Hynix is separately pressing ahead with a roughly $29 billion Nasdaq listing, and UBS has advised clients to position for a pricing gap between the stock's Seoul and U.S. listings. JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have diverged on whether to buy the AI-chip dip, underscoring how divided Wall Street remains on the sector.

Traders are also positioning ahead of SpaceX's Nasdaq 100 inclusion on Tuesday, betting the listing could lift sentiment across AI-linked tech names in Asia. South Korea's Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol has pledged to closely watch volatility risks tied to leveraged ETFs. Whether Monday's gains hold may depend on how chipmakers trade once Samsung delivers its preliminary results and broader risk sentiment absorbs the SpaceX listing.