[Edaily Reporter kyoungeun kim ] On the 15th, the KOSPI opened slightly lower but did not see its losses widen significantly, despite the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield breaking through the 5% mark and a sharp drop in semiconductor stocks.

According to MP Doctor, as of 9:04 a.m. today, the KOSPI is trading at 6,653.08, down 31.29 points (0.47%) from the previous day. While retail investors are defending the index with net purchases of 117.3 billion won, foreign and institutional investors are dumping shares, with net sales of 98.8 billion won and 23.1 billion won, respectively. By stock, 236 are up, 89 are unchanged, and 530 are down, with declining stocks dominating the market.
Overnight, the New York stock market closed lower as the outlook for a September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate hike strengthened, pushing the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note above 5% during the session, while semiconductor stocks such as Micron (-5.2%) and NVIDIA (-3.4%) plummeted in unison. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.6%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plummeted 5.9%.
However, the fact that the market closed having recovered a significant portion of its early-session losses appears to be providing a sense of relief to the domestic stock market. Han Ji-young, an analyst at KIWOOM Securities, noted, “While the fact that the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield has broken through the 5.0% mark—marking a change in the leading digit—could be a psychological burden, the fact that U.S. stocks recovered a significant portion of their early losses suggests that bets against consecutive Fed rate hikes have supported the market’s bottom.”
In fact, a Bloomberg survey conducted from September 8 to 10 found that 83% of respondents believed the Fed would limit rate hikes to just one or two. One analyst advised, “The key issue is not whether the index breaks through 5.0% per se, but whether further gains from current levels will trigger a deleveraging of stock price multiples,” adding, “It would be appropriate to adjust positions after confirming the stability of market interest rates at the September FOMC meeting scheduled for the latter half of the week.”
Regarding the “AI speed control” proposal by Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic—which has increased volatility in AI-related stocks—the analyst noted, “There has been no significant damage to the earnings outlook for the KOSPI, including the semiconductor sector,” and “Given that the consensus estimate for operating profit over the 12 months following September has been revised upward by 3.2%, while the KOSPI’s return for September fell by 2.0%, there is little practical benefit to selling on the dip even if volatility increases today or this week due to the ‘AI slowdown’ issue.”
Top-market-cap stocks are generally trading lower. SamsungElectronics(005930), the top-ranked company by market capitalization, is trading at 248,500 won, down 500 won (0.20%) from the previous trading day, while SK hynix(000660), ranked second, is trading at 1.69 million won, down 7,000 won (0.41%).
In addition, SamsungElectroMechanics(009150)(1.35%), SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS(207940)(0.42%), and Samsung Life Insurance(032830)(1.85%) were down, while KB Financial Group(105560)(2.92%) plummeted, posting the largest decline among the top-market-cap stocks. On the other hand, SamsungElectronics(1P)(005935)(0.65%) and LG Energy Solution(373220)(0.28%) are trading higher.
In contrast to the KOSPI, the KOSDAQ is showing a slightly positive trend. The KOSDAQ is currently at 807.77, up 0.98 points (0.12%) from the previous day.
While retail investors made net purchases of 10.6 billion won, foreign and institutional investors made net sales of 9.4 billion won and 1.6 billion won, respectively.
On the KOSDAQ, Alteogen Inc.(196170)(1.73%), the company with the largest market capitalization, is showing strength. ROBOTIS(108490)(1.85%) and EO Technics Co., Ltd.(039030)(0.70%) also rose, while ECOPRO CO., LTD(086520)(0.25%) and ECOPRO BM CO., LTD.(247540)(0.19%) edged up slightly, showing a slightly higher trend.
In contrast, semiconductor equipment stock WONIK IPS Co.,Ltd.(240810)(3.00%) plummeted, and JUSUNG ENGINEERING Co.,Ltd.(036930)(2.43%) also fell, performing poorly.