Market Movers Briefing丨Korean composite index plunges more than 6%, triggering a circuit breaker; chip stocks slide, with SK Hynix down more than 7%
On August 19, the latest developments in global capital markets are as follows: 08:08 On the morning of August 19, the stock markets of Japan and South Korea opened lower across the board. The Nikkei 225 index fell by more than 2%, dropping by over 1,800 points. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index also plunged by more than 6%, falling below 6,500. As of 8:08, the Korea Exchange launched the SIDECAR mechanism, pausing KOSPI automated sell orders. South Korean chip stocks sank sharply: SK Hynix fell 7.34%, and Samsung Electronics fell 6.42%. 07:00 Beijing time on Wednesday: stocks in Europe and the U.S. are plunging! European markets logged the longest consecutive losing streak since the beginning of this year. The STOXX 600 index fell 0.7% on Tuesday, marking a fifth straight trading day of decline. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed lower: the Dow fell 0.22%, the S&P 500 fell 0.69%, and the Nasdaq fell 1.33%. Tech stocks were hit hard, with AI-related sectors such as memory storage and optical communications seeing sharp pullbacks.
Opened with a gap down and the Nasdaq fell more than 300 points! Memory stocks tumbled—Micron fell more than 4%, SanDisk and SK hynix fell more than 5%! Chinese concept stocks were broadly down, and gold broke below $4,400丨US stocks opened
Reporter|Du Bo????Editor|Duan Lian???? Reporter|Du Bo Edited by|Duan Lian Du Hengfeng?Proofread by|Liang Luyue August 18, US stocks opened with a sharp drop. As of the time of writing, the Nasdaq was down more than 1%, the Dow Jones down 0.07%, and the S&P 500 index down 0.51%. Tech stocks broadly fell. SpaceX and Meta dropped more than 3%, Nvidia fell nearly 2%, and Tesla, Amazon, and Google were down within 1%. Apple and Microsoft inched up slightly. Memory-related stocks plunged across the board: SanDisk and SK hynix fell more than 5%, while Micron and Western Digital fell more than 4%. Intel fell nearly 5%, and AMD fell more than 3%. Most Chinese concept stocks declined. The Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index fell 0.52%. Baidu fell more than 7%, iQiyi fell more than 4%, and XPeng fell more than 2%. NIO and Li Auto fell more than 1%. Alibaba and New Oriental rose.
Storage Chips: Fire and Ice in Two Worlds—Consumer Storage Prices Ease, While the AI Sector Stays Hot
21st Century Business Herald reporter Luo Yiqi? Since this year's second quarter, an unusual signal has emerged: some spot-channel distributors of storage chips have been willing to lower their prices to sell certain models of NAND memory chips. A third-party agency said that since July, multi-brand eMMC products have shown a sustained pattern of selling at bargain prices. There is a clear price inversion between spot prices and contract prices, and the spot price of 64GB eMMC has already begun to loosen and decline first. eMMC is the standard storage chip for consumer electronics such as set-top boxes, smart TVs, and entry-level smartphones. Against the backdrop of overall high industry prosperity in the storage sector, this price inversion in this product category is especially eye-catching.
Japanese and South Korean stocks fell across the board; SK Hynix’s massive expansion in storage draws institutional optimism about the long-term boost of semiconductors to the South Korean economy
(Source: Caixin Weekly) The Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.54%, at 67,460.73 points; South Korea’s KOSPI index closed down 1.55%, at 6,869.80 points. On August 18, the Nikkei 225 closed down 2.54% at 67,460.73 points; South Korea’s KOSPI closed down 1.55% at 6,869.80 points. As of the close, SK Hynix rose 1.03%, while Samsung Electronics fell 2.19%. On the news front, SK Hynix said it will invest US$38.4 billion in South Korea to build a wafer fab to meet the sustained demand for storage chips in the AI era. Meanwhile, overnight US stocks related to the storage sector surged against the trend, with companies such as Kioxia and Micron seeing significant share price gains. Industry research firm SEMI expects that global semiconductor equipment sales will hit a record high in 2026, increasing 23.2% to US$165.9 billion. The current positive cycle is being transmitted upstream to the industrial chain.
SK Hynix Announces Two New Wafer Fabs in Yongin and Cheongju, South Korea; Harvest CSI Tech Chip ETF (588200) Watches Opportunities for Domestic Chip Investment
As of 2026-08-18 10:19, the SSE STAR Market chip index fell 0.86%. In terms of constituent stocks, winners and losers were mixed: Xi’an Yicai led the gain with an increase of 10.24%, while Shanghai Silicon Industry rose 5.11% and Raytronic Micro & Nano rose 3.95%. Meanwhile, China Shipbuilding Special Gas led the decline, and Xin Yuan Shares and Hygon Information also fell. SK Hynix announced that it will build two new wafer fabs in Yongin, South Korea, and Cheongju, with a total investment of about $38.4 billion, to meet the sustained growth in memory demand in the AI era. Among them, the Yongin “Y2” plant will focus on HBM and next-generation DRAM, with production expected to begin in 2029; the Cheongju “M17” plant will focus on NAND production required for enterprise-grade SSDs, with investment planned to be completed by 2031. Guotai Junan Securities noted that as AI computing power demand surges, global storage-chip manufacturing capacity expansion is accelerating, and upstream semiconductor materials and manufacturing processes will continue to benefit from this structural growth trend.
Will the first U.S.-bound investment project fall through? It’s said that the U.S. is pressuring Samsung and SK Hynix to build memory fabs in the U.S.; South Korea urgently denies it but refuses to disclose details
Source: Financial界 Zhitong Finance learned that the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae recently denied a report by local media that the government is discussing with the United States making the semiconductor sector the first investment project under its $350 billion investment commitment to the U.S. In a text-message statement, Cheong Wa Dae said the report that the two countries are discussing semiconductors as the first strategic investment project is “not true,” but it refused to provide further details on negotiations between South Korea and the U.S. regarding the investment commitment. According to reports citing unnamed ruling party officials, the U.S. has asked South Korea to make investments in U.S.-based memory chip production facilities a priority, creating uncertainty around the first investment project that Seoul had originally planned to announce by the end of this month.
Jin Hong Gas (688106) advances cooperation with ChangXin and SK Hynix on specialty gas supply
Economic Observer Net: Jin Hong Gas (688106) is advancing cooperation with ChangXin and SK Hynix on the supply of specialty gases. The subsequent expansion into more product categories and volume ramp-up are drawing close attention. Large customer onboarding pace: The cooperation with ChangXin and SK Hynix is being continuously advanced. The company has confirmed that it has the supply of specialty gases. Whether more categories can be onboarded and how much the volumes can ramp up are key to whether the electronics gases logic can be realized. The above content is compiled based on publicly available information and does not constitute investment advice.
SK hynix sounds the “storage shortage” alarm: the super storage cycle is reaffirmed
(Source: Financial News) During a media interview at SK hynix’s headquarters in South Korea, the company’s chairman once again emphasized the explosive growth in storage demand, and clearly stated that the most severe “storage shortage” will occur. According to him, all customers are requesting supply quantities nearly double their original demand. On August 18, after a brief pullback, the semiconductor equipment sector rebounded again, highlighting the resilience of the “hard technology” logic. Both the Huaxia Science and Technology Innovation Semiconductor ETF (588170) and the Huaxia Semiconductor Equipment ETF (562590) broke above the 30-day moving average. In the prior week, funds were added aggressively: net inflows exceeded 10 billion yuan and 400 million yuan, respectively.
“Too crazy!” Korean retail investors “move from Seoul to Wall Street”: buy SK Hynix ADRs, bet on 3x leveraged ETFs
Source: Wall Street News The sharp volatility in South Korea’s domestic stock market is pushing a large number of retail investors toward the U.S. market—though the bet they’re making is still on the same AI theme. According to data from Korea’s securities depository institutions, Korean investors net bought U.S. stocks in July of about $4.5 billion, up sharply from June, and nearing the peak level of $5.0 billion in January this year. At the same time, data from Korea’s exchanges show that last week, for most of the time, Korean retail investors continued to net sell domestic stocks—even after the benchmark index entered a technical bull market range—while overseas investors shifted in the opposite direction to net buying.
SK Hynix plans a $38.4 billion factory to meet AI memory demand; semiconductor equipment sales are expected to hit a record high
(Source: Caixin) Institutions believe that semiconductor industry capital expenditure is accelerating, and that improving conditions will be transmitted upstream, attracting attention to areas such as memory chips and advanced packaging. As of 10:05 a.m. on August 18, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.02%, the Shenzhen Component Index was down 0.42%, and the ChiNext Index was down 0.54%. Sectors such as planting and forestry, genetically modified crops, and corn led the gains. In the ETF sector, the Xiaxia Kechuang Semiconductor ETF (588170) rose 1.86%. Component stocks Xi’an Yicai-U (688783.SH) and Youyan Silicon (688432.SH) both surged by more than 10%. Shanghai Jingru (688584.SH) and Hsilicon Industry (688126.SH) rose by more than 5%. Other gainers included Semai Shanghai (688082.SH), Suncraft Shares (688233.SH), Xingfu Electronics (688545.SH), Qiangyi Shares (688809.SH), Tencent Technology (688072.SH), Jingsheng Shares (688478.SH), etc.
Misaligned storage cycles: Valuation has entered the “late cycle,” while fundamentals are still “in progress”
The storage cycle is typically divided into five stages: the down-cycle (supply overhang, destocking, with the stock price bottoming out before fundamentals), early recovery (spot prices rise before futures prices, and the stock price begins to recover), mid-cycle prosperity (both revenue and the second derivative of price accelerate; earnings and valuation expand at the same time, and the stock price sees its largest gains), late-cycle (the second derivative of price declines or turns negative, but revenue and earnings remain at high levels; valuation starts to compress, and the stock price trades in a range), and the cycle top (the inventory cycle lengthens, and the stock price falls before fundamentals). Here, the typical characteristics of the late stage of the cycle are: PE is cheap, income is still trending upward, but the stock price is no longer rising and has even started to fall.
Hong Kong stocks: 2x long product on SK Hynix gains nearly 6%
(Source: Caixin Finance) The Korean stock market, which was closed yesterday, rose today. The Korea Composite Index was up by more than 3% at one point, including SK Hynix which surged by nearly 9%. On August 18, after yesterday’s close saw a gain of more than 10%, the Southbound Dongying SK Hynix daily leveraged product (up to 2x) (7709.HK) continued to strengthen today in the Hong Kong stock market. Early on, it surged by nearly 6% to HK$43.16. In terms of news, the Korean stock market was closed yesterday but rose today; the Korea Composite Index was up at one point by more than 3%, including SK Hynix which jumped nearly 9%.
SK Hynix labor-management negotiations enter the final stretch, with the bonus disbursement model becoming the biggest point of disagreement
(Source: Finance News) On the 18th, the labor and management sides of SK Hynix held representative negotiations to conduct the final round of key talks aimed at finalizing this year’s wages and the collective agreement (wage group agreement). On August 18, according to overseas information reported by Finance News, the labor and management sides of SK Hynix (SKHY.US) held representative negotiations today to carry out the final round of crucial talks to finalize this year’s wages and the collective agreement (wage group agreement). According to industry reports, after SK Hynix labor and management held a sixth round of follow-up negotiations on the 12th, they conducted marathon-style talks during the Liberation Day holiday from August 15 to 17, focusing on the core disputed issues for intensive discussion. On the union side, the day before, they informed union members of the negotiation progress: “Some ancillary matters still require legal review and refinement of practical details, but there is already broad consensus on the main issues. The assessment is that the negotiations have already covered about 90% of the way.”
Big Gains Incoming: SK hynix Nears 8%, Choi Tae-won Joins Hands with Bill Gates to Lay Out Nuclear Power for AI Data Centers
(Source: Finance Headlines) The gain in the South Korean KOSPI index widened to 3%. SK hynix rose nearly 8%, and Samsung Electronics climbed more than 4%. On August 18, the gain in the South Korean KOSPI index widened to 3%. SK hynix rose nearly 8%, and Samsung Electronics climbed more than 4%. On the news front, SK hynix Chairman Choi Tae-won and Bill Gates held talks regarding the next-generation small modular reactor (SMR), AI data center power demand, and the feasibility of global energy cooperation. Two senior executives also met when Gates visited South Korea in August last year, maintaining ongoing communication and continuously strengthening bilateral cooperation. In 2022, SK Innovation and SK? jointly invested $250 million in TerraPower, making them the company’s second-largest shareholder. At the time, TerraPower had not yet launched commercial SMR products. It is reported that Choi Tae-won considered that with the AI era, power demand would surge—together with SK Innovation’s electrification strategy—leading him to judge that it was necessary to lay the groundwork for the next generation of nuclear power technology in advance.