SK Hynix shares crashed 10.95% on July 16, wiping out the previous session's gains and dragging South Korea's benchmark index into a technical bear market. The selloff was so sharp that the Korea Exchange activated its 37th sidecar of 2026 — the 19th sell-side trigger — at 9:10 a.m. after KOSPI 200 futures tumbled 5.22%.
The KOSPI opened at 6,960.50, down 4.45%, and quickly hit an intraday low of 6,753. The index has now fallen more than 20% from its recent peak.
Sidecar Fires Again
Thursday's sidecar was the second in as many days. Buy-side sidecars had fired on both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ the previous session, signaling extreme volatility across Korean markets. The sidecar mechanism halts program trading for five minutes when futures move more than 5% in either direction.
Samsung Electronics, the country's largest stock by market cap, fell 7.33%. Other Korean chip-related names also took hits: Seoul Semiconductor lost more than 5%, Samsung SDI dropped over 2%, and LG Innotek fell about 1%.
Chip Stocks Slide Across Asia
The rout wasn't confined to South Korea. Japanese semiconductor stocks also sank. Advantest dropped more than 6%, SoftBank Group nearly 7%, Tokyo Electron more than 5%, and Renesas Electronics 4%.
In the U.S., the pain continued from the previous session. Micron Technology fell 7.94%, Marvell Technology 7.27%, Intel 4.43%, and both AMD and Lam Research each lost about 3%.
What's Behind the Selloff
The broad decline came despite strong earnings from ASML, the Dutch chip-equipment giant, which raised its full-year sales guidance to 43-45 billion euros. That positive news wasn't enough to stem the tide.
Trader Louis Kondratev of XFUNDs said the pullback reflects how crowded the AI semiconductor trade has become. Semiconductors now make up about 20% of the S&P 500, he noted. Kondratev added that valuations may struggle even if earnings remain strong.
SK Hynix is down more than 20% in the past month alone.
Officials Eye Derivatives Risk
South Korean officials met Thursday to discuss leveraged ETF products tied to single stocks, reviewing their market impact. The meeting came as regulators look for ways to curb excessive volatility in a market that has seen repeated sidecar activations this year.
No specific policy changes were announced, but the review signals growing concern about how derivative products amplify moves in already jittery markets.
