Key Facts
What the world’s markets decided. The same semiconductor story that crushed everything on Friday flipped into a powerful rebound — and split the globe in two. As Asia opened on Tuesday, South Korea’s KOSPI exploded about +8.1% to 8,089, fast enough to trip the exchange’s upside “sidecar” circuit breaker, with Samsung +9.2% and SK Hynix up roughly 8%. Wall Street, by contrast, had risen only narrowly the day before — the S&P 500 +0.30% and the Dow actually −0.16%.
How the West moved. Monday’s US gains were not a broad rally but a narrow chase into chips. Semiconductors jumped (the chip ETF SMH +5.00%, Broadcom +2.82%, Nvidia +1.73%) while almost everything else slipped — utilities −1.87%, materials −1.32%, banks −0.63%, and even non-chip giants Apple −1.89%, Microsoft −1.18% and Alphabet −1.42% fell. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX, collapsed −12.04% to 18.92.
Why Asia surged hardest. Asia’s markets are packed with the exact chipmakers the rebound rewarded, so they had the most to gain — and they took it. The move was lit by Nvidia’s fresh AI-cooperation deals with Korean firms, a strong overnight US chip lead, and President Lee Jae-myung calling the KOSPI undervalued. Taiwan rose +2.76% and Japan’s Nikkei +2.05%; Indonesia rebounded +4.82%.
