MARKETS: Samsung posts solid results, stock markets fall in Asia

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee held its target interest rate at a range of 3.50-3.75 percent at the end of yesterday’s meeting, in line with expectations. The rate has remained at 3.50-3.75 percent since December 2025.

According to the Fed’s press release, the interest rate decision was made by a vote of 9-3. Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan dissented from the majority, who would have liked to raise the target range by a quarter of a percentage point.

The market interest rate on the US ten-year Treasury bond has jumped from around 4.6 percent yesterday morning to around 4.7 percent. The interest rate on the US 30-year bond has risen from around 5.09 percent yesterday morning to around 5.23 percent.

Markets are concerned about the Fed’s ability to keep inflation under control in the long term under new Chairman Kevin Warsh, market commentators interpreted.

Today, the Bank of England is due to make an interest rate decision, and tomorrow, Friday, the Bank of Japan.

Wall Street saw a clear decline yesterday, with the S&P 500 index falling 1.5 percent. The market was also weighed down by rising oil prices and a decline in chip stocks.

Asian stock markets were mostly down on Thursday. The Nikkei index of large Japanese companies rose 0.7 percent, but the broader TOPIX index was down half a percent. The Hong Kong stock exchange fell 0.03 percent and mainland China was down just over two percent. Of the semiconductor-focused stock exchanges, Taiwan posted a slight gain, but in South Korea the Kospi index was down about 1.0 percent.

South Korean chip and electronics giant Samsung reported its results. At the group level, Samsung’s earnings per share increased by 52 percent from the comparison period, as the chip side’s profits grew 250 times from the comparison period, exceeding analyst estimates. Samsung commented that it expects strong demand for its memory business in the second half of the year as artificial intelligence and data center investments continue to be strong. The company expects memory demand to accelerate further, which will keep the industry’s production still too small compared to demand.

Samsung estimates that production bottlenecks will continue, even though companies are trying to increase their production.

Samsung’s shares were up 1.0 percent on the Seoul Stock Exchange on Thursday. The price of another Korean memory giant, SK Hynix, fell more than four percent, continuing yesterday’s sharp decline. SK Hynix reported strong results the day before, but the market is still concerned about the highly cyclical nature of the industry in memory companies, which has historically led to strong earnings years followed by poor performance when production expansions that were started at a good time are completed but demand has not been as expected.

In the case of SK Hynix, investors are also concerned about the possible weakening of its strong position as Samsung invests heavily in its memory chip business.

“Samsung’s recovery and possible more aggressive pricing could put pressure on SK Hynix. The industry’s extensive investments are maintaining concerns about a correction in demand. In this market, record results alone are no longer enough for the market,” Jung In Yun, founder of Fibonacci Asset Management Global, told Bloomberg.

SK Hynix and Samsung executives have commented on the results, saying that the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence investment remains strong.

In the United States, Microsoft and Meta announced their results last night after Wall Street closed.

Meta’s second-quarter earnings missed analysts’ expectations. The guidance for full-year capex investments has been revised to $130-145 billion from the previous $125-145 billion. Meta’s shares were down 7.4 percent in after-hours trading.

Microsoft’s earnings beat forecasts, and revenue from its important cloud business Azure grew faster than analysts expected. The company’s investments are on track to reach $50 billion in the current quarter, up from $41 billion in the previous quarter. The pace is clearly accelerating, as investments in the past 12 months totaled $145 billion. Microsoft’s shares rose 8.9 percent in after-hours trading.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar had strengthened 0.1 percent against the euro and 0.2 percent against the pound. The dollar-yen ratio remained close to yesterday’s closing level.

The euro was trading at $1.15 and the dollar at 163.49 yen.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index futures were down a scant 0.02 percent, in anticipation of a cautious opening in Europe.