South Korean Kospi loses 15% in five days as Wall Street waits for numbers
The South Korean Kospi loses 15% in 5 days, while investors seem to be losing confidence in AI investments. What's going on here?
The turmoil on the Asian stock markets is mounting rapidly. The South Korean Kospi has lost more than 6 percent and dropped below 6,000 points, the lowest level since the end of July. Over the past five trading days, the index has thus fallen by about 15 percent.
The sales wave was so intense that the Korea Exchange temporarily activated a so-called sell-side sidecar. That system stops trading for five minutes when the futures market slows down too quickly.
The decline is again led by chip and technology stocks. SK Hynix lost about 6.5 percent, Samsung Electronics 5.6 percent and Seoul Semiconductor more than 3 percent.
Technology also went downhill in Japan. SoftBank fell by almost 7 percent, Advantest by more than 6 percent and Kioxia by almost 9 percent. Investors seem to be taking profits mainly in stocks that previously benefited strongly from the AI investment cycle.
In the United States, the picture is calmer. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are slightly lower, while Dow futures are slightly higher. Attention is now shifting to the number season.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and UnitedHealth publish their results on Tuesday. According to FactSet, the S&P 500 is expected to grow earnings by an average of almost 30 percent compared to a year earlier. That sets the bar particularly high.
According to Ameriprise, three groups are particularly important. Banks show how consumers and companies deal with high interest rates. Big tech companies need to prove that the huge AI investments are actually turning into revenue and profits. Energy companies provide insight into the profitability of oil prices above 100 dollars.
In addition, new US inflation figures will appear later this week. They can shake up the bond market again after long-term interest rates recently reached the highest level in more than twenty years.
The combination of falling Asian tech stocks, high earnings expectations and crucial inflation figures makes this an important test week for the global equity market.