Analysis

TradingKey - On July 15 local time, global semiconductor lithography giant ASML (ASML) released its Q2 2026 financial results. Several core metrics significantly outperformed market expectations, and the company raised its full-year guidance for the second time, highlighting robust growth momentum driven by the AI chip boom.

Japanese and South Korean stock markets continued to rebound, with the KOSPI’s surge triggering a buy-side circuit breaker. The Nikkei 225 edged slightly higher, while SK Hynix jumped nearly 9%, and Samsung Electronics and Kioxia both rose by approximately 6%.

TradingKey - During the Asian session on July 15, the IT sector of the Japanese stock market experienced a widespread sell-off. As of press time, NEC (6701) fell 4.44%, Fujitsu (6702) dropped 5.42%, Nomura Research Institute (4307) declined 2.94%, and BayCurrent Consulting (6532) fell 6.7%.

TradingKey - During the Asian session on July 15, the South Korean stock market rebounded strongly, with the KOSPI index gaining more than 7% intraday. As KOSPI 200 index futures surged and met the trigger conditions, the Korea Exchange activated a buy-side "Sidecar" mechanism, suspending programmatic buy orders for five minutes. The mechanism is primarily designed to curb the transmission of extreme volatility from index futures to the spot market and differs from a full-market circuit breaker that halts all trading.

TradingKey - As of July 14, Eastern Time, IBM (IBM) shares were trading at $217.07, plunging 25.21% on the day and hitting an intraday low of $213.22. The rare sharp decline in IBM's stock price was directly triggered by the company's advance warning that second-quarter revenue would fall below market expectations, noting that customer capital expenditures are shifting from traditional software and services toward data center infrastructure.

ASML reports Q2 2026 earnings this morning. Consensus: EPS $7.94, revenue $10.27B. Options pricing an 8.36% swing either way. The stock has pulled back 11% since July. At $1,808 in a triangle, here’s what matters today.

TradingKey - On July 14, ET, the three major U.S. stock indices closed slightly higher. U.S. June CPI was lower than market expectations, easing investor concerns about short-term Federal Reserve rate hikes. Meanwhile, strong second-quarter earnings from major banks drove a recovery in market risk a

SK Hynix surged 27% on Monday July 14 from $152 to $186, driven by Barclays’ Overweight initiation, South Korea’s record AI budget, and a recovery from Sunday’s worst-ever Seoul session. At $186 on Wednesday, the 2.0 Fibonacci extension at $198 is the next target.

Japanese and South Korean stock markets staged a sharp rebound, with the KOSPI Index surging nearly 7% and the Nikkei 225 making a steady recovery. SK Hynix jumped more than 9%, while Samsung Electronics, Kioxia, and SoftBank also traded higher.

Tradingkey - U.S. June CPI was lower than expected across the board, and the probability of a Federal Reserve rate hike in July fell below 20%. Additionally, Trump's decision to cancel fees in the Strait of Hormuz further boosted market sentiment. The three major U.S. stock indices closed higher across the board, with memory and chip stocks leading the gains, while a slump in IBM weighed on software stocks. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.02% to 52,508.27; the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.90% to 26,107.01; and the S&P 500 Index rose 0.38% to 7,543.59.

TradingKey - Apple (AAPL) is further increasing its investment in edge AI, aiming to enable large AI models to run locally on iPhones. The CEO of PrismML, a Silicon Valley AI startup, stated that Apple is in talks for technical cooperation to leverage extreme model compression technology. The goal is to run high-performance large models directly on iPhones, overcoming the hardware bottlenecks of edge AI. PrismML officially announced a compressed version of Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen (Qwen) model, reducing the original 27-billion-parameter model from 54GB to under 4GB, allowing it to run fully on iPhone 15 and newer models. This technology will achieve a more than 90% reduction in memory footprint, a 6-8x increase in inference speed, and a 3-6x reduction in power consumption.

TradingKey - On July 14, ET, AMD (AMD) regained upward momentum. As of press time, the stock rose 6.05% to $566.73. According to people familiar with the matter, a subsidiary of the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE and Kingsoft Cloud have received approval to purchase AI chips from Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD, further expanding the list of Chinese companies known to have obtained U.S. licenses.

TradingKey - On July 14, Eastern Time, SK Hynix ADR (SKHY) shares rose sharply, recouping losses since its listing. As of publication, the stock was up 15.19% at $175.44. It is reported that options for the stock began trading on U.S. options exchanges today. The most active contracts in the market are currently the $185 strike calls, with a volume of approximately 2,900 contracts, followed by the $145 strike puts. Meanwhile, August calls with a $200 strike price also saw high interest, with volume exceeding 1,500 contracts. Daniel Kirsch, head of options at Piper Sandler, noted that traders are expected to actively position for short-term trades betting on further gains for SK Hynix ADR this week. Demand for short-dated calls is anticipated to rise significantly, and calls expiring this Friday may attract a swift influx of retail investors.

TradingKey - SK Hynix opened at $170 last Friday, closed at $168, then Seoul shares fell 15.4% on Monday — the worst single day in the stock’s history. SKHY is now at $152, filling the gap. Here’s what’s driving the selloff and where the real floor is.

TradingKey - Nvidia cut more than half its approved Asian chip buyers under a new compliance ‘white list,’ sending the stock down 3.5% on Monday. At $204 with a double top at $212, here’s what matters now — including the strongest quarter in its history.

TradingKey - On July 14, Eastern Time, data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provided a positive surprise to the market. The unadjusted CPI rose 3.5% year-on-year in June, a significant decline from 4.2% in May and lower than the market expectation of 3.8%. The seasonally adjusted CPI fell 0.4% month-on-month, marking the largest single-month drop since April 2020 and far exceeding the market forecast of -0.1%.

TradingKey - On Tuesday, IBM (IBM) released a preliminary second-quarter results preview that shocked the market. The disclosed revenue of $17.2 billion was not only significantly lower than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $17.86 billion, but also fueled market concerns regarding the waning trend of traditional businesses amidst the AI infrastructure boom.

TradingKey - Goldman Sachs reports Q2 2026 earnings before the bell on July 14. Consensus: EPS $14.47, revenue $16.49B. At $1,047 in a symmetrical triangle, the $1,067 level is the breakout trigger. EMEA M&A hit a 19-year high.

TradingKey - On July 14, Eastern Time, the three major US stock index futures showed mixed performance in pre-market trading. As of press time, Nasdaq 100 Index futures rose 0.49%, S&P 500 Index futures edged down 0.12%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.69%.

TradingKey - JPMorgan reports Q2 2026 earnings before the bell on July 14. Consensus: EPS $5.50–$5.59, revenue $49.16B–$51.09B. Full-year NII guidance of $103B is the key variable. At $334 above trendline support, $338.45 is the breakout trigger.