KOSPI Claws Back to 8,800 Amid Wild Swings as Samsung Cracks Global Top 12 Ahead of Jensen Huang's Seoul Visit

KOSPI swung wildly within a single session, rising as much as 1.6-1.8% to touch 8,933 points before plunging to 8,500 within roughly 30 minutes. KOSDAQ also weakened close to 3%, trading around the 108-point range. Hosts noted that volatility tends to cluster in the first 30 minutes after the market opens, since thin volume during the pre-market and early regular session leaves prices vulnerable to distortion from one-sided flows.

A structural driver behind the volatility is the rapid growth of passive ETFs. Domestic ETF assets have surpassed 500 trillion won, meaning at least 10% of the roughly 7,000 trillion won KOSPI market cap now moves in lockstep with ETF flows. The problem, panelists explained, is that the trigger needed to move this massive pool is comparatively tiny — even modest foreign or retail selling can set off outsized reactions across the entire 500 trillion won pool, a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Foreign investors net sold more than 5 trillion won on the KOSPI at one point during the session. The primary driver was profit-taking and rebalancing in recently surging names — stocks like Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek, which had posted consecutive upper-limit gains over the past week, bore the brunt of the selling. Samsung Electro-Mechanics plunged about 12%, compounded by month-end ETF rebalancing within three business days, while LG Innotek fell nearly 20%.

A secondary factor cited for foreign selling was the need to raise cash ahead of the SpaceX IPO. SpaceX filed official IPO paperwork on May 20, with an institutional roadshow ahead of pricing on June 11 and a Nasdaq listing on June 12. Because the listing structure differs from Korea's, institutions reportedly need to have subscription funds ready by the 11th — a date that also coincides with quadruple witching in futures and options, adding to the volatility.

Panelists offered guidance for beginner investors: a 20%-plus intraday loss within just three to four hours is rarely justified by fundamentals, so if the exit window was missed, it's often better to stay calm and watch rather than panic-sell. They also stressed that investing is not a task to rush through — rather than deploying a full day's planned purchase at once, spreading it out and pacing decisions is a healthier habit.

The panel concluded that market swings shouldn't be judged as simply right or wrong but adapted to as a structural feature of today's market. Notably, on days like this, stocks that hold up better than the index or actively resist the decline tend to be the ones that jump first when the market turns higher — a signal worth watching.

Samsung Electronics overtook Meta to rank 12th in global market capitalization, narrowing the gap with Tesla considerably. Google's Alphabet and Apple also swapped 2nd and 3rd place, a shift panelists flagged as evidence of broader change in the global market-cap landscape. SK Hynix ranked 13th, now valued above Berkshire Hathaway.

Panelists identified four drivers behind Samsung's rise. First, legacy memory prices keep climbing without letup, generating an almost inexhaustible stream of profit. Second, the announcement of world-first mass production of HBM4 has triggered industry chatter that Samsung isn't just catching up in output but is beginning to open a meaningful technological gap. Third, spillover demand from clients unable to get enough capacity from TSMC is bringing new orders to Samsung's foundry business, suggesting momentum for a rebound from its worst levels. Fourth, Samsung's abundant cash could fund investments and vertical integration into next-generation businesses like robotics and humanoids.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, speaking at GTC Taiwan, confirmed that the next-generation Vera Rubin AI accelerator is now in full production and explicitly named Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as memory suppliers — a statement that resolves lingering market doubts about Samsung's HBM qualification success and yield.

According to market researcher TrendForce, Samsung held a 38.5% share of the commodity DRAM market in Q1 2026, actually expanding from Q4 2025, with revenue up 90% quarter-over-quarter. SK Hynix posted a 28.8% share with 62% revenue growth, while Micron held third place at 22%. The dominant gap the three companies hold over Chinese rivals was cited as evidence that late movers will struggle to catch up — even China's ChangXin Memory's self-claimed 7% market share is not recognized by independent market trackers.

Bloomberg's analysis of Samsung's valuation put its forward P/B at 2.83x and forward P/E at 7.09x, noting that the AI-driven expansion cycle is entering its second year and that much of the recent rally rests on optimistic guidance from U.S. hyperscalers. Applying the logic of capital-intensive, low-obsolescence ('HALO') companies, the report argued the historic ROE gains at Samsung and SK Hynix could prove durable.

Still, panelists cautioned that the rally so far has been driven by external tailwinds — rising chip prices and AI capex from Big Tech — and that from here, it will hinge on Samsung management's capital allocation and investment strategy. The real test, they said, starts now.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's May trade data, cosmetics exports reached about $1.18 billion, up roughly 24% year-over-year — the highest May figure on record. A notable surge came from the Middle East despite ongoing conflict there, reflecting diversification of export markets beyond the U.S. and Europe into the Middle East and Latin America. Hosts noted the report draws only around 1,000 views despite tracking almost in perfect sync with related stock prices, and recommended checking monthly export data directly for sectors of interest — especially now that item categories have expanded from a handful to 20 for finer detail.

Korean cosmetics exports are concentrated in basic skincare and sheet masks, with U.S. shipments rising notably and shipments often pulled forward ahead of major retail events like Amazon sales. The term 'glass skin' — coined in the U.S. among younger consumers describing the smooth complexion associated with Korean skincare — was cited as evidence the trend has taken hold.

Anthropic has reportedly filed preliminary paperwork for an IPO, with a listing possibly as early as this fall; share count and pricing are not yet finalized. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron all participated in Anthropic's recent funding round, with Samsung reportedly contributing the largest amount, in the trillions of won. Anthropic moving ahead of OpenAI in listing plans has stoked interest in the competitive dynamics of the AI race. Bloomberg noted that combined revenue at SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI now exceeds the total revenue of all U.S. dot-com era IPO companies combined — evidence, the panel argued, that this isn't a repeat of that earlier bubble given the underlying revenue and substance.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to arrive in Korea Thursday evening for a five-day visit through the 8th. He'll attend a samgyeopsal dinner in Seongsu-dong on the 5th, with meetings reportedly being arranged with SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, Naver chair Lee Hae-jin, and Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Eui-sun. A first pitch at a Doosan Bears game is planned for the 7th, followed by a Naver visit on the 8th. Huang also said Nvidia would look to hold a GTC event in Seoul and deepen collaboration with Korea's AI ecosystem.

Tied to this, Korean companies including Hyundai Motor, LG Electronics, Doosan Robotics, SK Telecom, and Naver Cloud were repeatedly namechecked in connection with Nvidia's Omniverse digital-twin initiative, sending related stocks sharply higher before profit-taking hit hard once concrete partnership details failed to materialize immediately. Naver posted an 'Nvidia heart' message at its headquarters to signal its collaboration.

Samsung Electronics reaching 12th place globally by market cap, and Korea becoming the world's second nation with multiple trillion-dollar companies, is a proud milestone — but it should be treated as a beginning, not an endpoint. The commentary invoked 1989, when seven of the world's top 10 companies by market cap were Japanese, at the height of Japan's economic boom, when Toyota and others dominated globally and a Japanese firm's purchase of New York's Rockefeller Center prompted American headlines reading 'Economic Pearl Harbor.'

Yet the first thing Japanese companies did with their windfall was buy up New York real estate rather than reinvest in innovation — and today, not a single Japanese company remains among the world's top-cap firms. Sony's Walkman, once carried by people worldwide, is now a company barely remembered.

The call was for Korean companies to internalize this history rather than growing complacent. Instead of channeling profits into unrelated assets like real estate, capital should flow into new frontiers like AI, through direct investment, equity stakes, and M&A, to sustain global leadership over the long run.

The commentary also stressed that growth cannot be about giant corporations alone — workers, partner companies, the nation and its people must rise together. It referenced the recent explosion at Hanwha Aerospace's Daejeon facility, which killed five workers and injured two, arguing that the starting point for becoming a truly world-class company must include safety and respect for workers. Condolences were offered to the victims and their families.