U.S. CPI Eases, Boosting Risk Assets; South Korea's KOSPI Surges Over 7%, Triggers Circuit Breaker

BlockBeats News, July 15th. The US CPI for June came in below expectations, leading to a significant easing of market expectations for a near-term Fed rate hike, driving up global risk assets. The South Korean KOSPI index saw a rapid surge after the Wednesday opening, with an intraday gain of over 7%, triggering a temporary trading halt mechanism (circuit breaker) on the Korean Stock Exchange, with the KOSDAQ market also halting programmatic trading simultaneously.

Semiconductor stocks emerged as the market's main leaders. SK Hynix's ADR soared 27% overnight in the US, propelling its South Korean stock price to rise by approximately 10% on Wednesday. Market observers believe that since the listing of SK Hynix's ADR, the price linkage between the US stock market and the Korean stock market has further strengthened, potentially creating cross-border market volatility transmission.

However, several institutions still caution that despite the inflation data alleviating market concerns about a July rate hike, escalating Middle East tensions, rising oil prices, and the inflationary pressure from AI investments could still constrain the Fed's future policy space.