Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq surge on chip-stock rally and South Korea rebound

All three major US indices climbed on the back of a semiconductor-fueled rally, with chip stocks leading the charge after South Korea’s market staged an impressive recovery from one of its most violent recent selloffs. The move underscored just how tightly the global AI spending boom has woven together markets from Seoul to New York. The chip rally powering US markets Korean chip stocks spearheaded a broader Asian rally after US semiconductor indices rose by roughly 8%. That momentum carried directly into American trading sessions, lifting the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and even the traditionally less tech-sensitive Dow Jones Industrial Average. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, South Korea’s two semiconductor heavyweights, have reported record or near-record quarterly profits driven specifically by AI-related demand for memory chips. US chip stocks followed the playbook. Names like Micron and AMD, which have closely mirrored the trajectory of their Korean counterparts throughout this cycle, rode the wave higher. South Korea’s wild ride The index plunged as much as 12.6% intraday during a recent session before closing down 6%. The KOSPI had previously erased nearly 40% of its value f...