[Anchor]

Last Friday, the U.S. stock market closed sharply lower, centered around technology stocks such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Dark clouds are looming over our stock market once again today (October 19).

Reporter Baegun has the details.

[Reporter]

Last Friday on Wall Street, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index plummeted 2.15%.

Major semiconductor stocks experienced particularly steep declines, with AMD, Intel, and Micron Technology all plunging by more than 5%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index also tumbled nearly 4%, marking its eighth consecutive session of losses.

This is the longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis.

Amid growing skepticism over whether astronomical investments poured into the AI industry will yield commensurate returns, CoreWeave—which has expanded its AI data centers through massive debt—saw its stock price plunge by nearly 12% in a single day.

Compounding these pressures are higher-than-expected inflation and rising international oil prices, which have reignited concerns over interest rate hikes.

The KOSPI 200 nighttime futures closed down 3.5%, which is expected to weigh on the domestic market today.

Concerns are rising that further declines will be inevitable if foreign selling continues, particularly targeting large-cap semiconductor stocks, especially given the reduced purchasing capacity of retail and institutional investors.

[Kim Jae-seung / Researcher, Hyundai Motor Securities: We expect that the additional selling by foreign investors will not be overwhelmingly strong. However, the key issue seems to be who can step up as a buying entity to absorb that selling pressure.]

At the same time, many experts suggest that it is difficult to view this current downturn as the beginning of a structural bear market.

They emphasize a distinction must be made between concerns over overheated AI investment and the actual semiconductor industry conditions and demand.

[Park Sang-hyun / Senior Analyst, iM Securities: Given that the capital expenditures of AI companies themselves remain solid, our assessment is that it is still too early to view this as a structural downward trend.]

Starting three days from now, major U.S. big tech companies that have been driving AI investments are scheduled to release their earnings reports. Announcements regarding the scale of AI investments and profit outlooks are expected to dictate the short-term direction of the stock market.

(Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu, Design: Yang Ki-tae)