Foreign investors have net sold nearly $110 billion worth of South Korean stocks this year, putting increased pressure on retail investors to absorb the selling.

The U.S. Department of Labor will release June U.S. CPI data at 20:30 Beijing time tonight, including unadjusted annual CPI (previous value: 4.20%, forecast: 3.80%), adjusted monthly CPI (previous value: 0.5%, forecast: -0.1%), as well as adjusted core CPI monthly rate and unadjusted core CPI monthly rate, which may trigger market volatility. Fed Governor Christopher Waller stated that if future data shows inflation remains far above the 2% target, the Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates in the "near term". He noted that current monetary policy is at a "crossroads", with its direction to be determined by new information such as the CPI report released on Tuesday. If data trends turn unfavorable, the Fed is in a phase where it should not "slack off". Nick Timiraos, known as the "Fed's mouthpiece", said economists expect June's headline CPI to be pulled lower by falling energy prices, but core metrics are more important for the Fed. Core CPI is projected to be near May's 0.21% monthly rate; market focus will then shift to PPI and its implications for the PCE. Investinglive analyst Eamonn Sheridan forecast that U.S. June consumer price index will fall 0.2% month-over-month, the first decline since the pandemic, driven entirely by a 15% drop in gasoline prices from mid-May to the end of June. Annual inflation is expected to slow from May's 4.2% to 3.8%. Core CPI is seen rising 0.2% month-over-month, with annual core inflation edging down just from May's 2.9% to 2.8%.

According to Bitget data, South Korea’s KOSPI index has turned positive after earlier falling more than 5%. Samsung Electronics rose over 3%, while SK Hynix’s decline narrowed to 0.8%.

According to Bitget data, SK Hynix has reversed its earlier decline, now trading 0.7% higher after falling more than 8% earlier.

According to South Korean media outlet ZDNET, SK Hynix has started procuring equipment for the first-phase cleanroom of Y1, the first wafer plant of its Yongin semiconductor cluster. The initial plan is to add 20,000 units of monthly production capacity for 1c DRAM. The Y1 plant was originally scheduled to launch its first-phase cleanroom in May 2027, but has now been brought forward to February 2027. The company plans to kick off construction of a pilot production line at that time, followed by formal equipment installation from March to April, to expand monthly production capacity by 20,000 units. This production line will mainly manufacture sixth-generation 10-nanometer 1c DRAM, which can be used in AI-related high-value-added DDR and LPDDR products, and is slated for application in HBM4E, which is set to commercialize as early as 2027. To accelerate equipment introduction, SK Hynix has also advanced equipment price contract negotiations—usually held at the end of the year—to the start of the third quarter. SK Hynix is also simultaneously speeding up the overall construction progress of the Yongin semiconductor cluster. The project has a total investment of approximately 600 trillion won, and consists of four wafer plants; the completion target for the fourth wafer plant has been moved up from 2045 to 2033. The second and third phases of Y1's cleanrooms are expected to begin construction in the second half of this year.

According to Farside Investors' monitoring, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a net outflow of $424.7 million yesterday. IBIT recorded a net outflow of $185.5 million, while FBTC posted a net outflow of $245.6 million. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs had a net outflow of $15.4 million, all from FETH.

According to foreign media reports, after DeepSeek closed its latest financing round, founder Liang Wenfeng’s personal wealth has more than doubled, making him the richest founder of a global large AI model enterprise. Per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Liang’s current net worth stands at $36 billion, up from roughly $16.7 billion, surpassing Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. This comparison only covers companies whose core business and majority revenue come directly from large AI models, excluding diversified tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent, as well as AI industrial chain-related firms like data center operators and semiconductor companies. The vast majority of Liang’s wealth stems from his controlling stake in DeepSeek. In June this year, DeepSeek reportedly completed a 50 billion yuan financing round with a valuation exceeding 330 billion yuan, and Liang personally contributed 20 billion yuan. Per calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his shareholding has been diluted to approximately 78%. (Jinshi)