Seoul jumps 6.6% on SK hynix, and New York is not matching it
Oil rose after Yemen's Houthis claimed a missile hit on a Saudi refinery that Saudi authorities had not immediately confirmed, and the 10-year yield was already above 5%.
Key takeaways
Seoul's benchmark stock index closed up 6.63% on Wednesday after SK hynix reported a record quarter. U.S. futures were nowhere near that size.
Around 7 a.m. ET, Nasdaq-100 futures were up 0.4% and S&P 500 futures were up 0.1%, while Dow futures were down 0.3%. Reuters had attributed a rise in Nasdaq futures to memory-chip stocks after the results.
The quarter that moved Seoul
SK hynix said third-quarter revenue was 104.6 trillion Korean won, up 328% from a year earlier, and operating profit was 83.3 trillion won, up 632%. The operating margin was 80%. CNBC said that profit compared with an estimate of 76.7 trillion won.
The company said it expects demand for memory chips to exceed supply through 2030. It also plans about 100 trillion won of shareholder returns for 2026.
South Korea's Korea Composite Stock Price Index, the Kospi, closed at 6,012.44. Seoul Economic Daily reported it was the first close above 6,000 in 10 trading sessions. SK hynix rose 10.9% and Samsung Electronics rose 9%.
A U.S. fund that holds that market, the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF EWY, had a bid of $163.12 before the open. That was 3.6% above Tuesday's close of $157.46, less than Seoul's 6.63% gain.
Samsung and SK hynix dwarf the rest of EWY
The bid in the U.S. chip fund was smaller still. In the iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX, buyers were bidding $516.91 before the open, 1.1% above Tuesday's close of $511.06.
An unconfirmed strike, and a rate decision expected to be a hold
The chip news is not the whole morning. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $101.68 a barrel before the open, up 1.8% from Tuesday's settle of $99.90. CNBC reported that prices rose after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they had hit Saudi Arabia's biggest oil refinery, a plant that processes 550,000 barrels a day, with a missile. Saudi authorities had not immediately confirmed the strike.
That is a claim, not a confirmed outage.
The larger question for supply is still open. The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States has told several Gulf countries it may conduct a brief, forceful military operation against Iran after the midterm elections. The same report said President Donald Trump has not made a final decision, and that the White House would not comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist.
The U.S. Federal Reserve announces its decision at 2 p.m. ET, with a press conference at 2:30 p.m. The target range is 3.75% to 4%, after a quarter-point increase on Sept. 16. CNBC said CME Group's FedWatch, a gauge of rate odds, put the chance of a hold at roughly 92%, and that some expect Chairman Kevin Warsh to signal further increases.
The 10-year Treasury yield was at 5.01% early Wednesday, the same CNBC report said, up more than 1 basis point. That is already above the 4% top of the Federal Reserve's range.
Alphabet and Microsoft report after the close. CNBC said those results are another check on artificial intelligence.
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