Nasdaq futures fall 0.93% as Korea's rate hike broadens the chip selloff
Sentiment: mixed S&P 500 futures: -0.34% (7,589.00)
Nasdaq-100 futures NQ=F trade at 29,415.75, down 0.93%, after the Bank of Korea delivered its first rate hike in three and a half years and sent the Kospi 6.37% lower to 6,820.60, pushing a semiconductor selloff out of memory and into equipment and foundry names. UNH.US trades 6.61% higher at $446.26 after second-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.38 beat the $4.85 consensus and management lifted full-year guidance to $19.50 to $20.00 per share. Dow futures YM=F hold at 52,938.00, up 0.07%, leaving a 100 basis point gap to the Nasdaq contract.
Overnight drivers
- Bank of Korea's first hike in three and a half years: Kospi -6.37% to 6,820.60, with SK Hynix down more than 11%.
- Nikkei -2.79% to 66,835.54: Japan's chip and AI names followed Korea lower. Hang Seng +1.33% to 25,008.60 finished higher and broke the pattern.
- TSM.US -4.28% pre-market at $401.69: second-quarter profit rose 77% and beat consensus, and the stock is lower anyway.
- Brent US$85.67 (+0.85%): a fourth consecutive daily gain after fresh US airstrikes on Iran. XOM.US +0.56% and CVX.US +0.73% pre-market.
- US VIX 16.39 (+4.61%): below 17 while NQ=F trades 0.93% lower and YM=F holds +0.07%.
US data at 08:30 ET
- June retail sales: +0.2% to $768.6 billion, matching consensus. May revised up to +1.0% from +0.9%.
- June retail sales excluding autos: -0.2%, against a -0.1% consensus, after +1.0% in May.
- Initial jobless claims (week ended 11 July): 208,000, down 8,000 from a revised 216,000, against a 216,000 consensus. The four-week average fell to 214,250.
- Continuing claims (week ended 4 July): 1,805,000, down 16,000. The insured unemployment rate held at 1.2%.
Claims at 208,000 are the lowest since 2 May and the four-week average is down 4,750 on the week. The Census Bureau flagged that the 90% confidence interval around the 0.2% retail sales gain includes zero. Headline retail sales matched consensus and claims printed 8,000 below it. NQ=F trades 0.93% lower regardless.
Overnight Asia and Europe
| Index | Level | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Kospi | 6,820.60 | -6.37% |
| Nikkei 225 | 66,835.54 | -2.79% |
| Hang Seng | 25,008.60 | +1.33% |
| STOXX 600 | 638.54 | -0.65% |
| DAX | 24,764.94 | -0.94% |
| FTSE 100 | 10,478.89 | -0.35% |
Pre-market movers
| Ticker | Move | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| UNH.US | +6.61% | Q2 adjusted EPS $6.38 vs $4.85 consensus; FY guidance to $19.50 to $20.00 |
| JBHT.US | +6.41% | Q2 EPS $1.91 beat; intermodal drove $55.1m of a $62.2m profit gain |
| ABT.US | +4.09% | Q2 sales $12.6bn, up 13.0%; full-year EPS guidance raised |
| HUM.US | +4.01% | Managed care repriced on the UNH print |
| CVS.US | +3.01% | Follows UNH, no company news |
| SNDK.US | -7.91% | Memory selling extends a second session |
| WDC.US | -7.60% | Storage down 15.7% across two sessions |
| STX.US | -6.31% | Third storage name in the same trade |
| MU.US | -5.67% | Down 13.2% since Tuesday's close |
| ARM.US | -5.02% | Designers repriced, no company news |
Semis lower, software higher
LRCX.US -4.20%, AMAT.US -3.94% and KLAC.US -3.84% put the equipment makers alongside the foundry this morning, AMD.US -3.62% and INTC.US -3.27% cover the processor side, and NVDA.US -1.72% is the shallowest decline among them. Yesterday this was a memory trade, with TSM.US -0.22%, NVDA.US +0.33% and ASML.US +2.23% all outside it. ASML.US -2.02% gives back part of Wednesday's 2.23% gain, which had followed a full-year revenue guidance raise to a range of EUR 43 billion to EUR 45 billion from EUR 36 billion to EUR 40 billion.
MSFT.US +0.86%, GOOGL.US +0.51%, AAPL.US +0.25% and AMZN.US +0.17% all sit higher, extending Wednesday's session, when AAPL.US closed +4.01%, GOOGL.US +3.17%, META.US +3.07% and AMZN.US +3.02% and carried the S&P 500 to a 0.38% gain even as WDC.US fell 8.78% and MU.US fell 8.02% on the same day. KO.US +0.89% and the insurers supply the rest of the Dow support.
GE.US -2.85% raised full-year guidance on second-quarter revenue up 21% to $13.3 billion, profit of $2.8 billion and free cash flow of $3.0 billion. It closed 1.87% higher on Wednesday and trades lower now.
What to watch (ET)
- 09:30 cash open, with NQ=F -0.93% against YM=F +0.07% and RTY=F -0.47%.
- MU.US, SNDK.US and WDC.US carry two-session declines of 13.2%, 15.4% and 15.7% into the bell.
- US 10-year at 4.583%, up 3.8 basis points, alongside DXY 100.55 (+0.06%) and gold at US$4,033.30 (-0.46%).
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