Kospi Jumps 8% on Ceasefire Hopes as Samsung Electronics Surges 12%, SK Hynix 9% — SpaceX's Nasdaq Debut Adds to the Cheer

Kospi Surges Past 8% as Foreign Investors Turn Net Buyers

The Kospi jumped more than 8% to top the 8,400 mark, lifted by ceasefire hopes and a strong Wall Street session, while the Kosdaq rose about 4% to reclaim the 1,000 level. Foreign investors bought a net 1.4 trillion won worth of shares and institutions added nearly 1.8 trillion won, driving the rally.

President Trump backed off plans to strike Iran and signaled a deal could be signed as soon as this weekend, sending Wall Street higher and lifting memory-chip stocks, a rally that carried over into Korea. With a packed calendar ahead — including next week's Federal Reserve meeting and Japan's rate decision — observers noted Trump may want to close the deal before the week is out.

Among foreign net buying, SK Hynix topped the list, followed by Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Electronics preferred shares, and Naver. SK Hynix turned foreign-net-buy positive the previous day for the first time in roughly ten months. Retail investors were relative sellers, but the hosts framed this as short-term profit-taking best judged on a cumulative basis rather than day to day.

An Axios report that Iran would give up nuclear weapons and sign a memorandum resolving the uranium dispute pushed the Kospi's gains further, to the mid-8% range by the afternoon session.

Samsung Electronics +12%, SK Hynix +9% Lead Chip Rally

Samsung Electronics surged about 12% and SK Hynix about 9% on the day. Foreign buying concentrated in large-cap electronics manufacturing, with program buying flowing heavily into both names.

The hosts again urged listeners not to sell large-cap chip stocks, advising that even when taking profits, positions in market-anchor names like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shouldn't be fully liquidated. They flagged three variables to watch going forward: whether the ceasefire holds, the direction of U.S. rate policy, and earnings.

The Race to Mass-Produce Humanoid Robots, and SpaceX Goes Public

The humanoid robotics industry is said to be moving past the proof-of-concept (POC) stage into serious mass-production preparation. Validation cycles that normally take two to three years are compressing to three-to-six-month loops in this sector, and big tech firms are already building factories aimed at annual capacity of 10,000 units. The industry is watching 2028 as the inflection point when robots start delivering real returns on factory floors, with production capacity, quality, and unit cost all set to become fierce battlegrounds before then.

Tesla is building a dedicated robot factory, and Figure AI has publicly touted its own factory build-out, intensifying the race. China is already ahead, with one company having shipped 10,000 robots last year, and domestic Korean startups are raising funds with mass production as the explicit goal.

Hyundai Motor Group is pursuing a U.S. joint venture combining a robot training hub for Boston Dynamics — the Robot Metaplant Application Center (RMC) — with a separate robot production plant, and hiring for the effort has reportedly begun. Securities analysts speculate Google DeepMind and Nvidia could invest in the venture to secure real-world robot action data accumulated at Hyundai's factories. The hosts lamented that Korean firms like Samsung Electronics or SK Hynix aren't part of such large-scale investment rounds, calling for more domestic corporate collaboration on future industries.

LG said it will invest 400 billion won to build Korea's first robot training center. Separately, Boston Dynamics' security robot Spot and its humanoid Atlas are being deployed at this year's World Cup venues for brand exposure, and a robot soccer tournament in which machines compete fully autonomously, without remote control, is set to be held in Korea this year.

SpaceX went public on Nasdaq at an IPO price of $135 a share, valuing the company at $1.75 trillion and raising $75 billion — the largest IPO in history, more than double the previous record set by Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion. Underwriters reportedly accepted unusually low fees to win a role on the deal, a sign banks expect a steady stream of future business tied to SpaceX.

The key insight offered was that SpaceX doesn't make its money from launches themselves but from businesses built on top of its launch capability. Falcon 9 boosters are designed for roughly ten reuses, and revenue from just four external launches can cover the cost of all ten — meaning the remaining launches are effectively free. SpaceX used that spare launch capacity to build Starlink, its satellite internet service, and since 2023 Starlink revenue has exceeded half of total sales, effectively turning SpaceX into a telecom company.

SpaceX's next growth driver is space-based data centers. The model mirrors Starlink — launching satellites en masse — but swaps communications gear for computing hardware, letting the centers run on solar power without the electricity or permitting bottlenecks that plague terrestrial data centers. SpaceX has already signed deals to lease ground-based data-center capacity (Colossus) worth $15 billion a year to Anthropic and $11 billion a year to Google, and a expected merger with AI coding tool Cursor could push annualized revenue past $60 billion by year-end. Whether space data centers actually launch on schedule hinges on stabilizing the larger reusable Starship rocket, with 2029 seen as the earliest realistic date.

Based on last year's $18.7 billion in revenue, SpaceX's price-to-sales ratio (PSR) runs as high as 100x, fueling overvaluation concerns — though factoring in already-contracted revenue for this year brings that down to roughly 30x. That's still rich compared to Tesla's six-year average PSR of about 15x, but is supported by SpaceX's effective monopoly on reusable launch. Risks flagged included dependence on Elon Musk, orbital congestion and safety concerns from the proliferating satellite fleet, and potential government regulation.

Markets are also anticipating a possible Tesla merger later this year, following an expected Cursor merger, on the logic that combining Tesla's robotics and autonomous-driving business with SpaceX's AI and communications infrastructure would create vertical-integration synergies. SpaceX may also acquire telecom carriers or set up local entities country by country to enable direct-to-cell (D2C) satellite service. The hosts recommended a steady, dollar-cost-averaging approach rather than a large first-day bet.

Hyperscaler Spending Set to Outpace Market Expectations

Goldman Sachs projects hyperscaler AI capital spending at $780 billion this year but argues the market is still underestimating the trend. Drawing on past infrastructure build-outs like railroads and automobiles, where investment reached 2-3% of GDP, Goldman estimates spending could top $1 trillion by 2027, and reach as much as $1.4 trillion under a bull-case scenario — a dynamic seen as directly feeding memory-chip demand.

Iran-Israel Ceasefire Hopes Lift Wall Street

President Trump signaled plans to strike Iran before quickly reversing course, saying a deal with Iran could be signed at the negotiating table as soon as this weekend. He said Iran would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz once an agreement is signed, with speculation that Vice President Vance would attend the signing.

Axios reported that Iran would agree to give up nuclear weapons and sign a memorandum resolving the uranium enrichment dispute. The report sparked a Wall Street rally that carried into Korean markets, though some noted Iran's own statements suggested the deal wasn't fully finalized yet, warranting a wait-and-see approach.

Should Kids Be Taught to Trade Stocks at Daechi-dong Academies?

Cram schools in Seoul's Daechi-dong district are now offering stock-investing curricula, and expert-matching platforms for personalized stock lessons have emerged. In some areas, parents are even pooling money to hire investment experts to teach their children directly.

The host advised against teaching stock investing to children in middle school or younger. Stock prices move constantly, making emotional control and psychological discipline essential — something young children simply can't manage — and, unlike schoolwork, investing skill doesn't improve just by putting in more time.

Instead, the recommendation was to introduce the topic gradually once children reach high school, or to quietly build a small account and contribute to it steadily on their behalf. Having children trade directly or fixate on returns, the host warned, risks becoming an unnecessary burden rather than useful early education.