South Korea's KOSPI bounced after two trading days of nearly 10% declines,
climbing as much as 5.5% on Friday; Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each
rallied more than 9%. A surge in KOSPI futures prompted the Korea Exchange to
briefly suspend program trading. Foreign funds and retail investors were net
sellers of KOSPI stocks while domestic funds increased holdings. Reports that
ANTHROPIC PBC is in talks with Samsung to co-develop custom AI chips, together
with elevated expectations ahead of Samsung's preliminary results, underpinned
gains. Fibonacci Asset Management CEO Jung In-yoon said the ANTHROPIC-Samsung
talks are early-stage and likely to have limited near-term earnings impact but
are strategically positive for Samsung's AI-chip positioning and for Asia's role
in the AI semiconductor supply chain.
