Jay Qian

TradingKey - On June 16, Tokyo time, the Bank of Japan concluded its two-day monetary policy meeting, announcing a 25-basis-point rate hike to raise its policy interest rate from 0.75% to 1.00%. This is the first time since 1995 that Japan's interest rate has touched the 1% level, and it also marks the central bank's first rate hike since December 2025, aligning with widespread market expectations.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on June 16, the Nikkei 225 Index breached the 70,000-point mark intraday; South Korean stocks extended yesterday's strong momentum, with the KOSPI Index closing 2.11% higher.

TradingKey - During Asian trading hours on June 16, the Nikkei 225 Index breached the 70,000-point psychological level for the first time in history, marking a new record high since the burst of Japan’s bubble economy in 1989.

TradingKey - TSMC (TSM) recently disclosed for the first time that it is collaborating with major ABF substrate supplier Ibiden and panel manufacturer Innolux to jointly validate the application of glass substrates in its next-generation advanced packaging technology, CoPoS. This move indicates that competition in advanced packaging is extending from wafer-level processes to panel-level processes.

TradingKey - On June 15, Eastern Time, SpaceX's upward momentum following its listing continued in overnight trading, with SpaceX (SPCX) seeing its overnight gains expand to over 10%. If these gains hold until the U.S. market open on Tuesday, its market capitalization will rise to approximately $2.77 trillion, officially surpassing Amazon (AMZN) to become the world's fifth-largest publicly traded company.

TradingKey - On Monday, all three major U.S. stock indices closed higher, with the Nasdaq rising 3.07%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.92%, and the S&P 500 climbing 1.65%. SpaceX (SPCX) surged nearly 20% in a single day, continuing its strong performance following its IPO last Friday.

TradingKey - Japanese and South Korean stocks opened mixed on Tuesday during the Asian session on June 16. The Nikkei 225 index opened at 69,288.91 points, down a slight 0.04% from the previous close, while the TOPIX fell approximately 0.4% to around 3,984.4 points. South Korea's KOSPI index opened 1.8% higher at 8,696.55 points, extending yesterday’s rally of over 5%.

TradingKey - During the Asian session on June 15, the Nikkei 225 index closed sharply higher by 4.99% at 69,317.50, surpassing the 69,000-point milestone for the first time. Amid a broad market rally, MLCC-related stocks outperformed significantly: Taiyo Yuden surged nearly 23%, Ibiden rose over 19%, and Murata Manufacturing gained more than 17%, collectively serving as the core drivers of the Japanese market's advance that day.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on June 15, Japanese and South Korean stock markets closed sharply higher, boosted by news of a peace agreement signed between the United States and Iran. A significant cooling of geopolitical risks, coupled with improving fundamentals in the semiconductor industry, drove strong gains in the major indices of both markets.

TradingKey - On June 14, Eastern Time, industry sources revealed that SK Hynix is prepared to provide samples of its seventh-generation HBM4E to major customers, with shipments expected as early as this month and no later than next month. This progress is ahead of the "second half of the year" timeline previously proposed by the company during its Q1 earnings call.

TradingKey - According to media reports, the United States and Iran reached a ceasefire memorandum of understanding (MoU) on June 14 (EST), signaling a potential end to a military conflict that has lasted for over three months. Following the announcement, Asian markets surged across the board at Monday's open. As of press time, the Nikkei 225 Index rose over 5%, surpassing the 69,000-point mark for the first time in history. South Korea’s KOSPI Index once surged nearly 6% as safe-haven sentiment cooled significantly. U.S. stock index futures also rallied across the board.

TradingKey - The US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May, released on June 10, showed an acceleration to 4.2% overall inflation and 2.9% core inflation. The Producer Price Index (PPI) for May, released on June 11, increased 1.1% monthly and 6.5% annually, with core PPI up 0.4% monthly and 4.9% annuall

TradingKey - On June 8, Eastern Time, OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, officially filed for a confidential IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), becoming the second AI super unicorn to pursue a listing after Anthropic. Leveraging approximately 900 million weekly active users and its rapidly expanding enterprise business, OpenAI is expected to debut on the capital markets with a valuation approaching $1 trillion.

TradingKey - From June 5 to 8, 2026, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang conducted a four-day visit to South Korea, meeting with the heads of SK Group, Hyundai Motor, LG Group, and other major corporations. He announced that the next-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4) has been certified by the three major memory chip manufacturers and signed a multi-year technical cooperation agreement with SK Hynix.

TradingKey - On June 12, ET, Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter, that NVIDIA (NVDA) has informed Chinese customers that its new Vera CPU, dedicated to AI data centers, will be available as early as August and is now open for orders. Unveiled in March, the Arm-based CPU is NVIDIA’s first standalone processor designed specifically for autonomous AI. Production capacity is now prepared as the company shifts its focus toward full commercialization.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on June 12, the South Korean stock market experienced sharp volatility. The KOSPI Index opened 6.4% higher and surged by more than 8.6% intraday before closing at 8,123.62 points, a gain of 4.63%. Japanese stocks rose in tandem, with the Nikkei 225 Index closing at 66,019.82 points, up 2.81%.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on June 12, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix initially drove the South Korean KOSPI index up by more than 8%. However, intraday reports surfaced that several major Wall Street banks are restricting hedge funds' leveraged bets on these two stocks and TSMC (TSM). Subsequently, the South Korean stock market experienced a short-term dive, and the gains of the two major chip stocks narrowed significantly.

TradingKey - Following Samsung Electronics’ June 11 announcement to grant all employees access to external generative AI services, SK Hynix has confirmed it is assessing the feasibility of introducing ChatGPT Enterprise and Microsoft Copilot. The semiconductor industry is transitioning from the supply side of AI chips toward deep integration into corporate operations and management.

TradingKey - During the Asia session on June 12, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) opened significantly higher by over 7%, reclaiming the 8,000-point mark, with gains subsequently expanding to over 8%. As of press time, the KOSPI stood at 8,388.53 points, surging 624.58 points or 8.04% from the previous trading day. During early trading, a circuit breaker was triggered as KOSPI 200 index futures rose by 5%, leading to a five-minute suspension of programmed trading.

TradingKey - On June 11, Eastern Time, as SpaceX moves toward its largest-ever IPO, CEO Elon Musk appeared via video at ASML’s annual technology conference in the Netherlands to outline his plans to enter the semiconductor manufacturing sector to ASML employees. Boosted by the news, ASML shares closed up 9.53% at $1,899.48, hitting a 52-week high.