[Edaily Reporter Park Sun-Yeop ] As the domestic stock market continues to underperform global markets amid selling pressure concentrated in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure sectors, analysts predict that this week’s earnings reports from U.S. Big Tech companies will serve as a turning point in determining whether the market will rebound.
In a report released on the 20th, Cho Jun-ki, an analyst at SKSecurities, stated, “Given the current oversold conditions, valuations are attractive, creating an environment where buying on the dip could emerge at any time,” but added, “Since the market narrative has taken an unfavorable turn, preemptive directional bets would constitute high-risk, high-return investments.”

Last week, the KOSPI closed at 6,820.60, down 6.46%, significantly underperforming the U.S. S&P 500 Index, which rose 0.38% over the same period, and the Nasdaq Index, which rose 0.24%. This was driven by rising international oil prices due to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, as well as recent selling pressure in the U.S. stock market, particularly in semiconductor stocks.
Researcher Cho assessed that rather than a sharp decline across the entire global stock market, selling pressure was concentrated in the information technology (IT) sector, which includes semiconductor and AI infrastructure-related stocks. He explained that the domestic stock market was hit relatively harder because the semiconductor sector accounts for an overwhelmingly large share of it. In fact, among the sectors in the U.S. S&P 500, IT fell 5.5% last week, recording the worst performance.
Rising market expectations regarding AI investments are also a source of concern. Although TSMC, the world’s largest foundry, reaffirmed AI demand by reporting record-breaking earnings and a strong outlook, its stock price did not react positively. IBM also saw its stock price plunge 25% on the same day after announcing a earnings shock due to a shift in its clients’ AI budgets from software to hardware.
Caution regarding AI from China is also resurfacing. Analysts note that concerns similar to last year’s “DeepSeek shock” have resurfaced after Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI unveiled “Kimi K3,” which demonstrated performance close to the top-tier models from Anthropic and OpenAI and was released as open-source software.
Investor sentiment surrounding domestic semiconductor stocks is also expected to remain challenging early this week. According to the report, during the domestic stock market’s closure, the prices of perpetual futures for SamsungElectronics(005930)and SK hynix(000660) —listed on cryptocurrency exchanges—fell by approximately 2% and 4%, respectively.
Researcher Cho stated, “Concerns regarding the growth rate of capital expenditures (CAPEX) should be alleviated by the earnings reports from Big Tech companies, such as Alphabet, which will be released starting this week,” adding, “Whether these earnings restore confidence in investments in semiconductors and AI infrastructure will determine the short-term direction of the domestic stock market.”