US Pre-Market 28 July 2026: Chip Rout Splits Dow and Nasdaq Futures by 155 Basis Points
Sentiment: mixed S&P 500 futures: +0.11%
Nasdaq 100 futures trade at 27,995.25, down 0.69%, while Dow futures sit at 52,832.00, up 0.86%, after a report that China has begun mass-producing homegrown deep ultraviolet lithography tools sent Asian chipmakers into their steepest session of the year. Corning (GLW.US) is the largest S&P 500 pre-market decliner at -18.13%, after second-quarter earnings beat by $0.03 and third-quarter guidance landed around consensus. South Korea's KOSPI closed at 6,023.66 on 28 July 2026, down 10.84%, tripping a circuit breaker in its heaviest single session since March.
Overnight drivers
- China lithography production: The Information reported China has started mass production of domestic deep ultraviolet chipmaking tools. KOSPI -10.84%, Kosdaq -5.66%, Taiwan's TAIEX -4.65%. US equipment makers followed: AMAT.US -4.86%, KLAC.US -4.86%, LRCX.US -4.66%, ASML.US -4.95%.
- CXMT Shanghai listing: the Chinese memory maker raised $8.5 billion and rose 466% on Monday's STAR Market debut, then gave back about 4% on Tuesday. MU.US -6.69%, WDC.US -7.21%, SNDK.US -7.57% and STX.US -7.10% all traded lower on the same competition question.
- Monday's US chip selling: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index closed at 11,554.88, down 2.23%, with NVDA.US -4.99% and AMD.US -5.17%. Memory and equipment names carried the overnight selling. NVDA.US trades -0.40% pre-market.
- Q2 earnings outside technology: UL.US +8.15%, SHW.US +6.87% and KO.US +3.80% pre-market carry Dow futures higher and account for the 155 basis point gap to Nasdaq futures.
Overnight Asia and Europe
- KOSPI: 6,023.66 (-10.84%), circuit breaker triggered
- Nikkei 225: 62,364.92 (-3.95%)
- TAIEX: 41,603.36 (-4.65%)
- Hang Seng: 25,310.85 (+0.41%)
- STOXX 600: 644.95 (+0.05%)
- DAX: 25,384.95 (+0.09%)
- FTSE 100: 10,835.26 (+0.50%)
Samsung Electronics fell 13.39% and SK hynix 14.65% in Seoul. Kioxia dropped 18.33% in Tokyo, Tokyo Electron 10.96% and Advantest 10.11%. Taiwan Semiconductor fell 2.98%, a shallower decline than the equipment makers. Hong Kong was the one regional index to finish higher. European markets did not follow the selling.
Pre-market movers
| Ticker | Move | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| UL.US | +8.15% | Q2 underlying sales +5.8% vs 4.3% consensus; FY outlook raised to 4-6% |
| SHW.US | +6.87% | Q2 adjusted EPS $3.70 on revenue of $6.79 billion, ahead of estimates |
| KO.US | +3.80% | Q2 EPS $1.03, sales +7% to $13.38 billion, guidance lifted to 9-10% |
| CDNS.US | +3.51% | Beat after Monday's close, adding to a +3.79% session |
| WMT.US | +2.16% | Unannounced, likely flow-driven |
| GLW.US | -18.13% | Q2 EPS $0.78 beat by $0.03; Q3 guidance around consensus |
| SNDK.US | -7.57% | Closed -11.02% Monday, extends the memory decline |
| WDC.US | -7.21% | Sold on Chinese memory capacity competition |
| STX.US | -7.10% | Reports fiscal Q4 today, caught in the storage selling |
| MU.US | -6.69% | Largest memory name by market value at $1.0 trillion |
S&P Global (SPGI.US) trades -3.66% after releasing second-quarter results at 7:15am ET, reversing a +3.15% Monday close. Intel (INTC.US) is -5.14% pre-market against a -0.70% Monday close, and Arm (ARM.US) is -4.39% after closing +2.43%. Both INTC.US and ARM.US flipped sign overnight with the equipment makers.
US economic calendar today (ET)
- 10:00 Consumer Confidence, July
- 10:00 Richmond Fed manufacturing survey
- 10:30 Dallas Fed Texas retail outlook survey
- FOMC two-day meeting begins. The rate decision lands Wednesday at 2:00pm ET with the press conference at 2:30pm ET, and the target range is 3.50% to 3.75% going in.
What to watch
- NQ=F at 27,995.25 against YM=F at 52,832.00 is a 155 basis point spread, and it tracks semiconductor weighting.
- MSFT.US and META.US report Wednesday after the close; AAPL.US and AMZN.US report Thursday. AAPL.US carries a $4.95 trillion market value against NVDA.US at $4.76 trillion.
- VIX at 18.77, up 0.54%, alongside a 10.84% KOSPI decline.
- Crude at $81.37, down 1.50%, and gold at $4,033.50 per ounce, down 1.07%.
- Pre-market direction in AAPL.US (+0.64%), MSFT.US (+1.62%), AMZN.US (+1.10%) and META.US (+0.88%) runs opposite to the chip names.
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