[Good Morning Stock Market] US Stock Market Hits All-Time High on Nvidia Rally, KOSPI Expected to Start Slightly Lower

The Nasdaq in the U.S. stock market reached an all-time high, fueled by a rally in Nvidia. The domestic stock market is expected to start slightly lower.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 28th (local time) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 216.73 points (0.55%) from the previous trading day to close at 38,852.86. The S&P 500, which focuses on large-cap stocks, rose 1.32 points (0.02%) to 5306.04, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed up 99.09 points (0.59%) at 17,019.88.

Last night in the U.S. stock market, the Nasdaq surpassed the 17,000 mark for the first time ever, driven by strength in semiconductors including Nvidia, setting a new record. However, the overall market was not uniformly strong. The rise of Nvidia, the third-largest by market capitalization, limited downside pressure on the index, but many companies within the S&P 500 saw weak stock performance. The May consumer confidence index significantly exceeded market expectations, and weak demand for 2-year and 5-year U.S. Treasury auctions caused long-term bond yields (10 years and above) to rise more sharply than short-term yields, resulting in a "bear steepening" that weighed on the stock market.

The market focused on Nvidia, which surged 7%. News that xAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, plans to raise about $6 billion to build a supercomputer added to expectations for increased demand for Nvidia AI chips. Along with Nvidia, semiconductor stocks such as ARM Holdings (9.0%), AMD (3.2%), and Micron (2.5%) showed strength, pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to a historic high. Meanwhile, Apple (0.01%) closed flat despite news that iPhone shipments in April increased 52% year-over-year.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Korea Index Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) rose 1.0%, while the Emerging Markets Index ETF fell 0.1%. Eurex KOSPI 200 futures declined 0.5%. Considering this, the KOSPI is expected to start slightly lower today.

The domestic stock market is expected to be influenced by the semiconductor tailwind seen in the U.S. market. Kim Seok-hwan, a researcher at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "Recently, LG Electronics surged, showing that expectations for AI are spreading from semiconductors to sectors beyond semiconductors," but added, "However, focusing on the more fundamental aspects, the direct beneficiaries of AI expansion in the domestic stock market will be 'semiconductors.'"

Han Ji-young, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, analyzed, "The domestic stock market is expected to show a price trend with limited upside due to concerns about Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation," and added, "Considering the strong performance of AI-related stocks in the U.S., a differentiated sectoral market is likely to develop domestically, centered on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and power devices."

On the same day, the 1-month Non-Deliverable Forward (NDF) USD/KRW exchange rate in New York was 1362 won, and reflecting this, the USD/KRW exchange rate is expected to start about 2 won higher.