Asian Markets Rebound as Kospi Snaps Weeklong Slide
South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.05 percent to 5,668.05 on Friday, snapping a weeklong slide. For the week, though, it lost 14.46 percent — its worst weekly drop since October 2008.
Foreign investors turned net buyers for the first time in nine sessions, purchasing 172.1 billion won ($129.1 million) of shares. That was a fraction of the 3.6 trillion won they dumped a day earlier, and local institutions and retail investors sold into the rally.
Samsung Electronics gained 2.6 percent to 215,500 won and SK Hynix added 0.8 percent to 1,272,000 won. Hyundai Motor jumped 5.6 percent and Samsung Biologics rose 4.1 percent. The tech-heavy Kosdaq surged 4.46 percent, triggering a buy-side sidecar — the mirror image of Thursday’s sell sidecar and 20-minute trading halt.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.39 percent to 65,324.29. Kioxia rose 3.84 percent and SoftBank added 1.90 percent. The Nikkei still fell 5.37 percent on the week, its largest weekly decline since July.
TSMC slipped 0.8 percent in Taipei despite record quarterly profit. Its CEO’s cautious remarks still weigh. The concern spreading beyond earnings is the debt burden of AI infrastructure builders, symbolized by CoreWeave’s bond yields at 15 percent.
Bargain hunting after the near-bear-market plunge drove the bounce, helped by dovish comments from Fed Chair Warsh, according to Yonhap Infomax. South Korea’s finance ministry said it is closely monitoring whether equity volatility spills into bond and currency markets.
Eyes now turn to the United States. Nasdaq futures are near flat and chip stocks remain soft in premarket trading. The question is whether the one-day lag works in reverse this time — just as Thursday’s Asian plunge reached the U.S. a day late, the rebound may arrive on the same delay. Friday is also a monthly options-expiration day, when morning swings tend to run large.
One day’s rebound does not settle the debt question hanging over AI infrastructure builders. CoreWeave’s bond yields remain at 15 percent, and Gartner expects 80 percent of neocloud operators to fail. Whether today’s U.S. session extends Asia’s bounce or reverses it is the next thing to watch.
