Jay Qian

TradingKey - During the Asia-Pacific session on July 30, Samsung Electronics disclosed its Q2 2026 financial results and held an earnings call. Operating profit for the quarter reached 89.49 trillion KRW (approximately $62 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 1,813.8% and marking a record high for the third consecutive quarter. Samsung now ranks first among global semiconductor manufacturers in terms of quarterly earnings.

TradingKey - Pressured by a triple whammy of negative factors—escalating geopolitical tensions, the Fed’s tightening policy, and a cooling AI narrative—the three major U.S. stock indices all plunged on Wednesday.

TradingKey - During the Asian session on July 29, following two consecutive days of circuit breakers in the South Korean stock market, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol apologized for single-stock leveraged ETFs during a parliamentary inquiry, admitting that the products were introduced to the market without prudent consideration.

TradingKey - Microsoft (MSFT) will release its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, July 29, Eastern Time. Just a day before the report, Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management posted on X that Microsoft's earnings figures are "irrelevant," asserting that the real issue is that the "battle with the bots has just begun."

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on July 29, the Nikkei 225 Index continued to weaken following the open, as the semiconductor sector extended the previous day's panic selling momentum. As of writing, Kioxia Holdings fell nearly 8%, SoftBank Group dropped over 6%, and Tokyo Electron declined nearly 5%.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on July 29, SK Hynix (SKHY) reported record second-quarter earnings, yet its failure to meet market expectations triggered stock price volatility. However, in response to widespread market skepticism regarding the sustainability of AI infrastructure investment, the memory giant provided a firm rebuttal during its earnings call.

TradingKey - On Tuesday, the rotation in the U.S. stock market continued, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising more than 500 points. The rally was driven by better-than-expected corporate earnings, a decline in oil prices, and a shift of capital from the semiconductor sector to other sectors

TradingKey - July 28, SoftBank Group has recently seen new developments in both capital markets and M&A. A $40 billion bridge loan raised for investing in OpenAI attracted an additional 21 financial institutions during its syndication phase; meanwhile, negotiations to acquire Blackstone’s Japanese payment company SP.LINKS have entered the final stage.

TradingKey - The Federal Reserve is scheduled to announce its July interest rate decision on July 29, ET. While the federal funds rate target range is currently maintained at 3.5%-3.75%, the level of uncertainty surrounding this meeting is at a high rarely seen since September 2024. Interest rate swap market data indicates a roughly 40% probability of a 25-basis-point rate hike, and the CME FedWatch Tool shows a probability of approximately 36%, up significantly from only about 10% two weeks ago.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on July 28, South Korean media outlet The Herald reported that SK Hynix plans to mass-produce its next-generation low-power mobile DRAM product, LPDDR6, in the second half of 2026.

TradingKey - During the Asian session on July 28, Japanese stocks opened lower and plummeted. As of writing, the Nikkei 225 Index fell by more than 4%, dropping below 62,000 points at one point to hit its lowest level since late May, while the TOPIX Index fell nearly 3%. The semiconductor sector collapsed almost across the board, serving as the primary drag on the broader market.

TradingKey - During the Asian trading session on July 28, the South Korean stock market experienced a sharp plunge. The KOSPI index continued to extend its losses, dropping by 8% as of press time and triggering an intraday circuit breaker. The Korea Exchange subsequently activated "Sidecar" mechanisms, suspending programmed sell orders to curb market volatility.

TradingKey - At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.51% to 52,210.08; the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.18% to 24,932.08; and the S&P 500 Index rose 0.02% to 7,413.18.

TradingKey - South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT announced on July 27 that the South Korean government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with U.S. chip giant AMD. The two parties will establish an AI research center in South Korea and jointly build an open AI computing infrastructure ecosystem.

TradingKey - According to Bloomberg on July 26 ET, at least nine leveraged ETFs tracking Japanese memory chip giant Kioxia are preparing to list in the U.S. If successful, this would mark the first time a Japanese company has served as the underlying asset for a single-stock leveraged ETF. Issuers include Tuttle Capital, GraniteShares, and Corgi Strategies, with Tuttle Capital’s products expected to list as early as August 2026.

TradingKey - On July 26 ET, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nvidia (NVDA) is in discussions with OpenAI regarding a financing guarantee of approximately $250 billion to support the latter’s large-scale data center project in southern Ohio. If finalized, this guarantee would represent the largest cross-corporate credit endorsement in the AI industry to date.

TradingKey - The macroeconomic landscape during the week of July 20 to July 26, 2026, was defined by a notable deceleration in inflationary pressures alongside resilient business activity.

TradingKey - On July 28-29 Eastern Time, the Federal Reserve will convene its seventh monetary policy meeting of 2026. While this should have been a routine event, Wall Street's sentiment is markedly different this time, as no one can predict the outcome in advance.

TradingKey – SK Hynix (SKHY) has been listed on Nasdaq for over a week. On July 14, Eastern Time, its ADR price reached a premium of as high as 51% over its local underlying shares in South Korea, before quickly retreating to approximately 19%. Since then, the premium has not continued to narrow but has instead widened again; on July 21, the ADR premium stood at about 29.8%. This significant pricing divergence for the same company’s stock across two markets is the result of the combined effects of ADR trading mechanisms and arbitrage windows.

TradingKey - On July 23 ET, Nvidia (NVDA) and semiconductor packaging and testing provider Amkor Technology (AMKR) signed a multi-year packaging services agreement valued at approximately $1.5 billion. Boosted by this news, Amkor's stock price rose more than 12% in after-hours trading on Thursday.