South Korea’s Kospi closed down nearly 11% on Tuesday, its eighth circuit breaker of 2026 and one of the worst days of the year. South Korea’s famously volatile retail market is now infecting Western markets: The American semiconductor index SOX fell as much as 6% Tuesday, a fourth straight losing session and its longest streak this year, dragging the Nasdaq-100 down 9.7% from its record high—just short of a correction.
Yet the panic doesn’t square with what’s happening on the ground. Memory prices just keep going up, not down. Third-quarter contracts for DRAM are settling 20% to 30% higher this month. Google and Meta have signed contracts locking in prices and volumes for five years, and analysts generally don’t expect meaningful new supply until 2028.
