Asian Chip Stocks Slide as Hot Inflation Meets Slower AI
South Korea halted trading in the Kospi and the Kosdaq on Thursday after the indexes fell more than 8%. Samsung was down about 9.5%, SK Hynix about 11%, and SoftBank more than 9%, while the Nikkei lost close to 5%. A hot US inflation print and a slower AI revenue number hit the same trade.
Chip stocks priced a hotter inflation print
US consumer prices rose 0.6% in September and 3.7% over the past year, up from 3.4% in August. Core prices, which leave out food and energy, rose 0.3% on the month and 2.6% on the year. Forecasters had expected those core figures at 0.2% and 2.5%.
Gasoline rose 9.1% and did more than half the work in the monthly increase. Energy prices are up 20.4% over the year. Core inflation sped up too, which is the series the Federal Reserve watches when it weighs another rate increase.
The Wednesday close in the US was already weak. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% to 7,718.94. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9% to 26,692.87. AMD, Nvidia, and Intel fell with the chip group. The 10 year Treasury yield rose to about 5.3%.
Profits that arrive years from now are worth less when that safe yield moves up. Traders marked up the chance of a rate increase at the October 28 meeting. One report does not settle the meeting. It does make a smooth return to 2% inflation a harder claim.
A 45% revenue jump was read as a cooler pace
Anthropic put revenue at $16.8 billion for the quarter ended in September, up 45% from the prior quarter. Earlier quarters this year came in at $4.7 billion and then $11.6 billion. The first step more than doubled sales. The step up to $16.8 billion did not.
The business was also described as profitable for a second straight quarter, and a listing is expected before the end of 2026. A 45% gain would stand out in most industries. In this trade it was read as a slower pace, because the old pace had been a double.
Samsung and SK Hynix sell the memory inside those servers, and SoftBank holds a large piece of the same bet. If growth at a leading buyer steps down from a double to 45%, the chips and buildings those buyers can justify step down too. Not to zero. Down from the path already in the price.
The next AI dollar costs more
Treasuries drew buyers while chip stocks were sold. That fits a day when inflation surprises on the high side.
CoreWeave, a cloud firm backed by Nvidia, is seeking loans from insurers to fund the next data centers. Lenders price those loans off yields like the 10 year, now near 5.3%. Firms that pay no dividend have only the share price to offer, and that price now has to clear a higher hurdle while a major buyer grows at 45% instead of a double.
The rupee keeps a slice of the Jio gain
Jio Platforms, the digital arm of Reliance, is selling new shares at 1,065 to 1,119 rupees. The offer is about 30,213 crore rupees, roughly $3.2 billion, and current holders are not selling. The offer opens on October 21 and closes on October 23, with trading set for October 28. At the offer price the business is worth about 10.3 trillion rupees. That would make it India’s largest listing, ahead of the 27,870 crore rupee Hyundai Motor India sale in 2024.
Meta owns 9.98%, or 892,275,913 shares, worth about 99,845 crore rupees at 1,119. A crore is 10 million, so the stake is about 998 billion rupees. Alphabet, through Google, owns 7.73%, or 690,854,775 shares, worth about 77,306 crore rupees. Both were issued stock at 488.34 rupees in 2020. At the top of the band, that entry price is a notional gain of about 129% in rupees.
Dollars tell a smaller story. After the slide in the rupee, Meta’s reported gain is about 81%, or roughly 10.4% a year. Alphabet and several other early holders are nearer 8.2% a year.
Reliance still owns about 66.4%. The early holders are not selling, so the listing sets a public price without handing them cash. For anyone who keeps score in dollars, the rupee figure is the headline and the exchange rate does the cutting.
What this means for income investors
The S&P 500 has raised dividends by about 6.0% a year since 1990. At that pace the payout is about 101% higher after 12 years. A 9% pace would mean about 181%. A 12% pace would mean about 290%. A 15% pace would mean about 435%. Doubling the growth rate does much more than double the income, because compounding is not a straight line. Boards also smooth the path, lifting the dividend a little less than earnings in a boom and a little more when earnings slow.
Thursday’s large moves sat mostly in firms that pay little or no dividend. A 10% drop in a memory stock does not rewrite some other payout. It can still spill over if investors sell widely to raise cash.
A 10 year yield near 5.3% is a live alternative. A stock that yields less than that, and does not grow the payout, offers less cash than a Treasury and adds equity risk. A payout that can grow from a base near the long run 6% is a different contract. The cash rises while the shares are held. That 6% is an index average back to 1990, not a promise from any one board, and it is harder to fund when loans cost more and orders slow.
Foreign income carries the Jio lesson. A 129% gain in rupees was a reported 81% gain in dollars for Meta. A dividend paid in won, yen, or rupees can shrink the same way before it is spendable in dollars. The business can execute, and the currency can still keep a slice.