Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
🌐 FIRE SPREADS TO ASIA
Yesterday we wrote that the euphoria didn’t live to see Friday. This morning in Seoul the exchange had to be shut down a few minutes after opening. A drop of 8,6% automatically halted trading.
6 November, South Korea. KOSPI opened down 2%, then just collapsed: down 8,55%, below the 5000 mark. The first-level circuit breaker triggered, stopping trading for 20 minutes. The last time Korea saw this was 5 August 2024.
The main hit was again to chips. Samsung Electronics down 10%, SK Hynix down 12%. Together the two companies, by FourWeekMBA’s calculations, lost about 166 billion dollars of market capitalization in one session. Japan’s Nikkei fell 6,2% and plunged below 60 thousand points, to 57 289.
Where this came from is visible from yesterday’s close in New York. The Nasdaq down 5,52%, the worst day since spring 2025. The S&P 500 down 4,3%, the Dow down 3,4%. AMD down 16,8%, Nvidia down 9,2%. The semiconductor index SOX overnight down 12%.
The reason is the same one we wrote about yesterday. After the Democrats’ victory the market is repricing the risk of tough regulation of data centers and AI. Korea and Japan are the memory and chip factories that underpinned the whole AI boom. When America asks whether it will allow data centers to be built, in Seoul they ask who will buy the memory.
Our timeline for the week. 3 November funds quietly exit AI. 4 November Democrats take Congress. 5 November the market celebrates in the morning and falls after lunch. 6 November the crash spreads to Asia. Today the U.S. jobs report is due, and the market will look for any excuse it can to pause.
🔈 We see that this is not a one-day panic but a revaluation of the whole AI narrative. It’s worth thinking about what portion of your money is directly or indirectly tied to that story: stocks, funds, pension plans, crypto that follows the Nasdaq.
💬 The circuit breaker stops trading for 20 minutes. It doesn’t stop the revaluation.