The Day After the Record Surge, Chips Buckled — But the Market Didn't

KOSPI, fresh off a record-breaking surge yesterday, dropped 4.64% today, dragged down by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both sinking 7%. Here's the odd part: foreigners and institutions were still net buyers on KOSPI today, over 7 trillion won and over 1 trillion won respectively, so this wasn't a market-wide retreat — it was profit-taking concentrated in the big chip names. The timing lines up with news that China's AI unicorn Moonshot AI had secured 20,000 Nvidia chips through Alibaba, which I think rattled some nerves about how stretched Korean chip valuations have gotten. Meanwhile KOSDAQ climbed 1.07% with cloud names leading the charge — it looks like money rotated out of semiconductors and into the next leg of the AI infrastructure story, cloud. With exports and employment still holding up the real economy, and the currency and commodity backdrop staying friendly, I read today less as a trend reversal and more as the market catching its breath after getting ahead of itself yesterday. Against that backdrop, I added 103140 to my book today.