South Korea's SK Hynix shares rose 3%, Samsung Electronics gained nearly 3%.

Galaxy Securities said in a Sept. 23 report the Fed hiked 25bps to 3.75%–4.00% on Sept. 16, the first increase since July 2023. A systemic rise in risk-free rates is lifting discount rates beyond the policy rate and compressing equity P/Es, disproportionately hitting high-valuation growth stocks dependent on distant cash flows. The AI narrative remains strong, but pricing is shifting from long‑term visions to near‑term realization. On the first trading day after the hike, storage, CPUs, foundry and optical‑interconnect segments outperformed; strong current earnings and short investment payback make these compute‑hardware nodes less sensitive to higher rates. Valuation differentiation is accelerating: hardware with verified cash flows and earnings (advanced process, memory, optical interconnect, equipment and materials) is benefiting, while narrative‑driven, unprofitable names are being further squeezed.

SoftBank's junk bond offering has attracted more than $20 bln in initial orders.