On Monday Aug 3, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed down 607.12 points (-0.94%) at 63,754.90. South Korea's KOSPI fell 338.04 points (-5.13%) to 6,257.41, while the KOSDAQ rose 2.44%. Chip heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics each dropped nearly 9%.

Valueworks CIO Charles Lemonides said a strong rebound in chip stocks after this selloff would not be surprising, but they are unlikely to lead the next phase of a bull market because they have already had their run. He noted Amazon and Microsoft last week reiterated commitments to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI over the next year, much of it for data-center chips, but said the ensuing fundamentals are in doubt. Chip names, especially storage-focused firms, are highly cyclical and prone to boom‑and‑bust demand swings; many on Wall Street expect this cycle to be no different. Lemonides called the recent earnings surge unsustainable and flagged margin reversion toward historical norms as the key risk — the question is when that reversion occurs and how markets will price it.

US President Trump said the U.S. had planned the largest attack on Iran since World War II.