Sunday, September 20, 2026

On Sundays, we wrap up the week.

This week started with the KOSPI falling 3.26% on Monday due to AI slowdown theory, but talk of memory shortages and price increases continued throughout the five trading days, with SK Hynix exceeding 1.8 million won on Friday, and the index ending the week flat.

Started with slowdown theory, ended with memory price increases

The KOSPI closed at 6,684.37, down 3.26% on Monday. Over the weekend, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, wrote about slowing performance improvement speed for new models, which Sam Altman and Elon Musk agreed with, triggering the decline. Samsung Electronics fell 4.1%, and SK Hynix fell 6.4%. On the same day, reports emerged that both companies rejected Korea Electric Power's proposal to prepay 25 trillion won in electricity charges. On Tuesday, Taiwan media reported that Apple accepted Samsung Electronics' memory supply price for the first quarter of 2027 at 30% to 40% higher than the third quarter of 2026.

The direction changed from Wednesday onwards. Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, said memory prices had already risen 5 to 7 times and shortages would worsen next year. Reuters reported that SK Hynix was discussing options to produce memory in the U.S., either by leasing part of Intel's Ohio factory or establishing a joint venture. Altman, who had agreed to slowdown, announced a major launch this week just two days later. On Thursday, AMD said it would raise AI accelerator prices by about 10% starting in the fourth quarter.

On Friday, SK Hynix rose 6.42% to exceed 1.8 million won on the day the labor-management agreement changing bonuses to 50% cash and 50% company stock was approved in a re-vote, and Samsung Electronics rose 3.36%. Over the weekend, exclusive reports emerged that Samsung Electronics would double production of high-bandwidth memory 4th generation and 4E next year, and UBS raised its 2026 global AI capital expenditure estimate to $998 billion, with 90% of the increase coming from memory price rises. In theme rankings, semiconductors held the top spot all week.

Doosan burned all its treasury stock, and power component companies continued receiving orders

Doosan announced at its board meeting on Thursday that it would invest 968.4 billion won in expanding copper-clad laminate production for AI data centers and would burn all of its treasury stock—1,956,424 common shares and 612,104 preferred shares—on October 2. Reports circulated over the weekend that the stock price had risen 61% since July 30. The holding company and value-up themes ranked second on Thursday and Sunday.

Two orders came on Tuesday. Doosan Fuel Cell signed a 322.2 billion won fuel cell contract with U.S. Hyaxiom, bringing the total for two contracts to 823.6 billion won following the 501.4 billion won contract on September 2. Hyosung Heavy Industries' U.S. subsidiary received an order for 765 kV and 345 kV transformers totaling 386.6 billion won. On Friday, Gaon Electric, an LS Cable subsidiary, rose 25.53% after announcing a 70 billion won investment to double its U.S. cable production capacity, and LS Marine Solutions signed a 156.9 billion won submarine cable contract with Hanwha Ocean. Samsung Electro-Mechanics' multilayer ceramic capacitor orders were reported to be full through 2029, along with JP Morgan's price-increase cycle analysis. The power equipment and cable themes ranked second on Wednesday and Friday.

Hanwha Systems to UAE, U.S. investment nuclear power delayed a week

Hanwha Systems rose 12.65% on Thursday on reports of pursuing construction of an integrated air defense system through a joint venture with a UAE state-owned defense company. Hanwha Engine rose 10.30%, Samsung Heavy Industries 6.2%, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries 6.1%. Expectations of orders for floating data centers and data center power generation engines were cited as background. Defense themes rose from 17th to 6th place, and shipbuilding from 13th to 4th place.

Nuclear power was the opposite. On Tuesday, exclusive reports emerged that Korea was considering acquiring a 15% stake in Westinghouse. On Wednesday, follow-up reports said the government had proposed investment participation to domestic nuclear power companies including Doosan. However, reports that the government cancelled its National Assembly report on the No. 1 U.S. investment project on the 17th and pushed it to the 22nd, and that the Korea-U.S. memorandum of understanding signing on the 18th was also delayed, led to Korea Electric Power Technology falling 5.8% and Doosan Enerbility falling 2.7%. Over the weekend, exclusive reports emerged that Stanley Druckenmiller from U.S. Wall Street visited Korea for the first time to discuss investment with three major domestic conglomerates.

Foreign investors sold 8.8 trillion won over four days, and KOSPI stayed in place

The KOSPI fell 3.26% on Monday, was pushed down to 6,582 intraday on Tuesday, then rose 1.37% on Wednesday and 2.66% on Friday, closing at 6,894.23. Compared to last Friday's 6,909.91, this is a 0.23% decline. Foreign investors sold 8.8 trillion won from Monday through Thursday, resulting in seven consecutive days of net selling, before returning to net buying of 431.7 billion won on Friday.

The background was U.S. interest rates and oil prices. On Tuesday, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.04%, the highest since 2007. Early Thursday, the Fed raised the benchmark rate 25 basis points from 3.75% to 4.00%, with the dot plot indicating one more hike this year and a hold next year. West Texas crude oil exceeded $105 on Tuesday but fell to $95 on Friday due to Saudi pipeline repairs and a two-week ceasefire proposal for the Houthi militia. The Korea Exchange after-market, which opened for the first time on Monday, traded 1.8 trillion won on its first day, with individuals accounting for 93%.

Words exchanged over the weekend

On Saturday, Yemen's Houthi militia drone-attacked King Khalid International Airport in Saudi capital Riyadh, marking the first attack on the Saudi capital. CNN reported that President Trump reviewed options to strike Yemen from Camp David. U.S. embassies in the Middle East issued security alerts. Iran said it conveyed ceasefire terms to the U.S. through Qatar.

The weekly net buy #1 for Western learning ants was the semiconductor 3x leverage ETF, and one week ago, the opposite direction ETF was 3rd. Next week, on Tuesday there's a National Assembly report on U.S. investment, Wednesday is the last trading day before the extended holiday, Thursday is the U.S.-China summit, and the 24th and 25th are holidays for Chuseok. On the 30th, the U.S. August personal consumption expenditure inflation and Micron earnings come out, and in early October Samsung Electronics preliminary results, with the next Fed meeting on the 27th and 28th.

The U.S. This Week

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 5.86% on Monday with all 30 constituents declining, then rose 3.14% Thursday and 2.78% Friday, ending the week with a slight gain. Nasdaq rose 0.72% for the week, S&P 500 rose 0.08%, and Dow fell 1.69%. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate rejected the cryptocurrency clarity bill, causing Coinbase to drop 10.1%, but two days later the SEC allowed tokenized stocks, laying the foundation for 24-hour trading, and three cybersecurity stocks—CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Fortinet—entered the top ten S&P 500 gainers for the week.

Among U.S. stocks, Nvidia rose the most over five days, with Intel taking that spot on Wednesday alone. The names that grew the most compared to last week were SpaceX and Intel.

Themes

Domestically, semiconductors held the top position throughout the week, and the second position was cosmetics & beauty on Monday, biotech on Tuesday, power equipment & cables on Wednesday, holdings & value-up on Thursday, and power equipment & cables on Friday. On Tuesday, robotics jumped from 18th to 3rd place with Samhyun hitting the daily limit, and in optical communications, AceTech, Gigarain, Photonics, and Korea Advanced Materials hit daily limits in that order. In the U.S., AI semiconductors held the top position, with Big Tech coming in second.

Data included in this article

Source: hatzze.fun/kadera

※ Mention volume and aggregation are merely expressions of what is being discussed and how much; they are for entertainment and reference purposes only and do not constitute buy or sell signals. The accuracy of the rumors is not verified.

▶ Original source: https://hatzze.fun/