declines in Wall Street contracts; SK Hynix falls by about 10%

12:59

The largest chip maker in the world, Taiwan Semiconductor reported this morning a 67.9% jump in revenues for the month of June compared to the corresponding month last year, ahead of the publication of the second quarter reports later this week.

The company’s revenues in the first half of 2026 amounted to 2.4 trillion New Taiwan dollars (about 75 billion dollars), an increase of 35.6% compared to the corresponding period in 2025. Revenues in June alone amounted to 442.68 billion New Taiwan dollars, an increase of 6.2% compared to May.

According to Saravan Kondojala, an analyst at SemiAnalysis, the data is “very strong”, and noted that the company’s revenues in the second quarter are expected to exceed the upper end of the forecast provided by the company – 40.2 billion dollars. According to him, the result is particularly striking because in the last four years TSMC’s June revenues actually tended to decrease compared to May.

The data reinforces the assessment that the demand for advanced chips, mainly for artificial intelligence applications, data centers and cloud computing, continues to be the main growth engine of the chip industry – even after the sharp increases in the sector’s shares.

12:29

The opening of the week on Wall Street is uncertain: the chips are being pressed, oil is rising and investors are waiting for the huge reports. Contracts on Wall Street are in decline, with chip stocks leading the declines in early trading, against the backdrop of renewed tensions in the Middle East and the wait for a week full of financial reports from giant companies.

The S&P 500 index is down 0.3, the Nasdaq is down about 1%, while the Dow Jones futures are almost unchanged with a negligible increase of 0.02%.

Chip stocks are under heavy pressure: SK Hynix shares traded in the US fell 10.4% in early trading, after its debut on the Nasdaq on Friday in which it jumped 13%. Earlier, the company’s shares traded in South Korea fell by more than 15%.

The other chip companies also weakened: Micron drops 6.2% in early trading, SanDisk loses 7.1%.

In the background of the declines is the escalation in the conflict between the United States and Iran. During the weekend, the exchange of airstrikes continued, when Iran attacked American facilities in several countries in the Gulf and announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump rejected the claim and said that the main shipping lane remained open to commercial traffic.

Oil prices responded with increases: Brent contracts climbed 2.8% to $78 per barrel, and WTI contracts rose more than 2.7% to $73.32.

“Closing the Strait of Hormuz will continue to cloud the market and create a risk-averse atmosphere,” wrote Ben Emmons, founder of Fed Watch Advisors. However, according to him, if there is no real threat of a prolonged shutdown that will lead to a global energy shortage, attention will soon return to inflation data, Federal Reserve policy and bank reports.

This week is expected to be particularly busy in terms of reports: among those reporting are the financial giants Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and more. Netflix will report on Thursday after the lockdown.

Expectations from the report season are high: according to FactSet, analysts estimate that the profits of S&P 500 index companies in the second quarter grew by an average of more than 23% compared to the corresponding quarter.

One of the main focuses will be the technology sector and the question of whether artificial intelligence will continue to fuel growth. According to Larry Adam, chief investment officer of Raymond James, despite concerns that the major cloud companies will moderate AI spending, it is estimated that investment plans will remain strong and even continue to rise until 2028, against the background of the increasing adoption of the technology among companies of all sectors.

10:50

Plus500 shares fall on the London Stock Exchange after the company, which operates a trading platform, released first results from the second quarter. The company’s revenues grew by 5% to 221 million dollars and the EBITDA (earnings excluding interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) increased by 1% to 91.8 million dollars. At the half level, revenue growth was 12% to $463 million and EBITDA increased 1% to $188 million. In doing so, the company exceeded the revenue forecast and presented EBITDA in line with expectations. The stock reached an all-time high last week, from which it weakened a little even before the reports and continues to fall after them.

10:30

The wave of global technology sales is coming to Europe, chip stocks on the continent are falling at the opening of trading, while the leading indices are trading in a mixed trend with a tendency towards declines. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index retreated by 0.1%, the German DAX index shed 0.2%, and the French CAC index fell by 0.1%. On the other hand, the British Potsi index maintains stability and shows a slight positive trend with an increase of 0.25%.

The negative sentiment in the continent is led by the semiconductor sector, which follows what is happening in Asia and is colored red. The German company Infineon falls by 2.3%, while the Dutch chip giants ASMI and ASML shed 2.1% and 1.5% respectively, and the French-Italian company STMicroelectronics loses 2.4%. The heavy pressure on the European chip companies comes as a direct continuation of the collapse registered this morning in Asia, where the South Korean SK Hynix stock closed down more than 15% (after its debut on the Nasdaq on Friday), and the Samsung company shed 10.7% of its value.

In the commodity sector, energy prices continue to soar amid fears of a supply crisis in the Middle East, with the price of a barrel of Brent oil rising by 3.78% to $78.88, and US crude oil (WTI) climbing by 3.71% and trading around $74.06 per barrel.

8:50

This morning in Asia, a sweeping negative trend is registered, with the falls being led by South Korea’s Kospi index, which drops by a sharp rate of 8.9%. Following it, the Japanese Nikkei index which also registers a significant decrease of 2.3%, while the Chinese Shanghai index loses 1.6% of its value. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index recorded a slight increase of only 0.1%.

The pressure in Asian markets is felt very strongly in the technology sector, with regional chip stocks leading the wave of declines. At the center of the declines is the South Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix, whose stock fell in Seoul by more than 10%, just a few days after it made a warning debut on the Nasdaq with a jump of 13%. “Everyone is really confused about what is going to happen to the demand for memory chips and where the fair price is,” said Daniel Yu, global strategist at Yuanta Securities, on the “Squawk Box Asia” program. “Everything revolves around the question of how much demand is out there compared to how much supply is going to come in… and what multiplier the stock is going to get.” The negative trend did not go unnoticed by the technology giant, Samsung, whose stock is losing more than 6%, amid reports of the establishment of a giant chip factory in Yongin until 2029. Tokyo Electron and Adventist.

on the other hand, LG Electronics shares are up over 5%, following a report in the “Seoul Economic Daily” newspaper that the company will build server bases for Nvidia’s artificial intelligence servers. Last June, Nvidia said it was establishing an “AI factory” with the aim of “accelerating the next wave of LG Group’s business based on artificial intelligence”, which includes robotics and autonomous driving. “The combination of LG’s manufacturing technology data and knowledge from global manufacturing sites, and Nvidia’s AI infrastructure and digital twin technologies, will help strengthen the competitiveness of AI-based manufacturing,” Nvidia said last month.

The futures contracts on Wall Street are trading in a negative trend and signal a red opening of the trading week, with the declines being led by the Nasdaq contracts which fall by 1.3%. At the same time, the pressure is also felt in the other leading indices, with the contracts on the S&P 500 index losing 0.6% of their value and the contracts on the Dow Jones index recording the mildest decline, dropping 0.4%.

In the American bond market this morning, lateral yield increases along the entire curve (reflecting decreases in bond prices) are recorded, with the yield on the 10-year bond rising to 4.582% and the short-term two-year yield climbing to 4.231%.

In the energy sector, the trading week opened with sharp jumps in oil prices, which are on a distinct upward trend amid fears of a supply crisis in the Middle East. The price of a barrel of Brent oil jumps this morning by 4.5% and trades at the level of $79.4, while the US crude oil (WTI) registers an even sharper increase of 4.6% and the price of a barrel reaches $74.7.

This jump comes as a direct continuation of the trend from the past week, in which sharp price increases were recorded; In a weekly summary, Brent crude oil futures jumped more than 5% to around $76 a barrel, while US crude (WTI) climbed about 4% to close around $71 a barrel. The ongoing military escalation between Iran and the US has not spared the gas market either, and natural gas prices in Europe have jumped by more than 6% in a weekly summary.

On the analytical side, investors are trying to decipher whether this is a one-off event or ongoing pressure. Sandeep Rao, an analyst at Leverage Shares, explains that the surge in energy prices has forced the financial markets to start re-pricing the possibility of a more hawkish monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, due to the fear that oil will become a root cause of inflation. Silvia Yablonsky, the chief investment officer at Defiance, states that “we saw an initial shift to energy and defense stocks, but investors quickly returned to focusing on the companies’ data. As long as there is no real damage to growth, the markets treat these events as temporary noise.”

In the gold market, despite the growing geopolitical tensions and the temporary weakening of the global dollar, factors that should support safe-haven assets, the precious metals market reacted this week with sharp price drops. This morning, the price of gold is down about 1% to $4,073 per ounce, retreating from the $4,100 level and marking a negative weekly trend.

The volatility and pressure exerted on the yellow metal is directly due to the monetary consequences of the crisis. The surge in oil prices arouses renewed fear of fueling global inflation, a scenario that will force the central banks, led by the Fed, to leave interest rates at a high level for a long time, which immediately harms the attractiveness of gold as a non-yielding asset. Bart Malek, head of global commodity strategy at TD Securities, summarized the trend in an interview with CNBC and noted: “The key factor here is the renewed tensions between the US and Iran, with investors generally preferring not to hold gold and silver at this point in time. All indications are that the market is concerned about inflation, especially since oil has recovered in recent days. This will keep the Federal Reserve with its finger on the pulse.”

The crypto market also reacts under pressure to the security tensions, with Bitcoin trading in a downward trend, losing 2.21% of its value and the price of the currency is set at $62,743.

06:20

The trading week resumes this morning around the world in the shadow of another wave of American attacks in Iran.

The immediate and biggest impact is on the price of oil which returns with a jump of over 4% – around $74 for WTI oil and $79 for Brent oil.

In Asia this morning the markets reacted with lower prices. For example, the Nikkei index opened with gains of 0.3% but erased it in a short time and is now down about 1.6%. South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.58% and is now down about 6.9%; The Shanghai index loses about 1.4%, and the Shenzhen falls by about 2.6%. The Hang Seng is trading close to base levels.

A company’s shares Samsung Electronics Down more than 6% on the day, as shares in the chip sector in Asia come under selling pressure. At the same time, the competitor SK Hynix drops by 11% against the background of widespread price drops in the markets in the region. Last month, the two companies pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in order to strengthen the chip ecosystem in South Korea.

The contracts on Wall Street indicate declines of 1.1% in the Nasdaq, and declines of about 0.3% in the Dow Jones and about 0.4% in the S&P.

The increase in geopolitical risk is hovering over the markets, but eyes will also be turned this week to the renewal of the financial report season with reports from the major banks – including JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. and the Netflix company. Also, the quarterly results of Netflix, Johnson & Johnson and United-Health are expected to be published.

Expectations for the current season are high. On average, analysts estimate that the second quarter profits of S&P 500 companies grew by more than 23% compared to the same period last year, according to FactSet.