Kospi Opens Lower Under Pressure as Samsung Electronics Drops Over 1%; SK Hynix Surges More Than 2% as Kioxia and SoftBank Follow

TradingKey - KOSPI comes under pressure to open and trade lower; Samsung drops over 1%, SK Hynix surges over 2%, while Kioxia and SoftBank follow the gains.

On October 26 Asian time, both Japanese and South Korean stock markets came under pressure and opened lower in early trading. The KOSPI opened 0.9% lower, temporarily trading at 7,163.48 points; the two core tech chip stocks diverged, with Samsung Electronics opening significantly lower, dropping 1.16% to 213,000 KRW, while SK Hynix rose 2.58% to 1,310,000 KRW.

KOSPI index chart, source: TradingView

The Nikkei 225 index also opened lower and moved lower, but subsequently strengthened to turn from a loss to a 0.2% gain, temporarily standing at 62,817.34; Kioxia rose 1.2% to 12,895 JPY, and SoftBank gained 1.22% to 4,328 JPY.

This week (October 26–30) is big tech earnings week for U.S. stocks, with giants such as Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) releasing financial results in dense succession. Capital has chosen to scale back leverage and wait on the sidelines before these heavyweight earnings land. In addition, the Federal Reserve's October FOMC interest rate decision meeting is coming up this week. Under hawkish rate prospects, global risk assets generally face capital outflows and de-risking pressure.