Spot gold fell below $4,040/oz, down 1.92% on the day.

Leveraged ETFs tracking Korea’s major semiconductor names, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, have plunged since end‑May listings, exposing retail investors to large losses. More than ten such funds are near halved; the largest, KODEX SK Hynix single‑stock leveraged ETF (AUM $3.4bn), is down about 45% since listing and over 60% from its June high. Jung In Yun, CEO of Fibonacci Asset Management, said many retail investors treated these ETFs as long‑term holdings and that the losses could curb retail buying of semiconductor stocks and leave any market recovery more dependent on foreign institutional inflows.

On July 13 A-share markets weakened again after last Friday’s pullback amid external market volatility and phase-one profit-taking in tech. After the close a rumor circulated that A-share quantitative strategies had long incorporated Korean tech stock moves into factor models and triggered linked reactions across domestic tech sub-sectors. A founder of a quant private fund with AUM above CNY20 bln said: "From an industry perspective, top domestic quant firms rarely use Korean data to construct factors; this rumor is pure outsider speculation. The quant industry also suffered heavy losses today; from what I learned after the close, most peers posted negative excess returns." A manager at a CNY10 bln-level quant firm called the allegation unfair and added: "If quant funds traded solely on overseas tech moves, long-term excess returns would inevitably be negative; most quant firms do not do that. The industry still seeks alpha by identifying and holding high-quality companies."