World shares waver as Kospi falls 4.6% after tech retreat on Wall Street

Key Points:

• South Korea’s Kospi index dropped 4.6%, led by significant declines in Big Tech stocks such as SK Hynix (-10.4%) and Samsung Electronics (-6.3%), amid profit-taking and risk reduction ahead of the U.S. July jobs report.
• European markets showed mixed results with Germany’s DAX up 0.3%, Paris’s CAC 40 rising 0.7%, and Britain’s FTSE 100 gaining 0.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.5%.
• Brent crude oil prices remained steady near $79.50 per barrel amid ongoing uncertainty over the U.S.-Iran conflict and potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which has impacted global oil supply and inflation.
• U.S. stock futures were slightly higher ahead of Friday’s employment report, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures up 0.1% and 0.3% respectively, while corporate earnings remain strong with expectations of 50% profit growth for S&P 500 companies.
• Notable corporate movements included Disney’s shares rising 3.6% after beating profit forecasts, while SpaceX shares fell 13.6% following its first quarterly report as a public company, despite a boost for Nvidia from SpaceX’s exclusive use of its AI chips.