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Asia Sells Off: Kospi −4%, SK Hynix −6.5%; Beats Sold

Asia — sea of red: Kospi −4%, SK Hynix −6.5%, Taiwan and Hong Kong follow after a sold earnings night

Seoul leads the selling — SK Hynix −6.5%, Samsung −4.6% — with Hong Kong −3.2%, the Nikkei −2.6% and Taiwan −1.8%. The trigger came overnight: four of five US reporters beat estimates and three trade lower anyway — Lam Research −7.2%, IBM −4.6%, Tesla −3.3% — while Meta (+2.2%) and SAP hold green. Nasdaq futures −1.6%.

In this edition

IBM SAP ASML

The Morning 10 Thu, Oct 22, 2026 ~90 seconds 08:00 CET

The ten points

Asia is a sea of red this morning, and Korea is its center. The Kospi is down 4.1% — erasing Tuesday's 2.6% rebound and more — with SK Hynix falling 6.5% and Samsung 4.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng has lost 3.2%, the Nikkei 2.6%, and Taiwan 1.8%, though TSMC itself is only 0.8% lower in Taipei: the selling sits squarely on memory, not on the foundry.

The trigger landed at four o'clock New York time, in the heaviest reporting night of the quarter. Four of the five reporters beat earnings estimates, and the tape sold three of them anyway. Lam Research — the chip-equipment maker with the heaviest memory exposure — beat on both lines and dropped 7.2% after hours, pulling Applied Materials, Lumentum and Coherent down with it. IBM beat on both lines and fell 4.6%. Tesla, whose delivery beat was already public, slipped 3.3% after its call. The two green prints: Meta, up 2.2% on record revenue while lifting its AI spending plan to roughly $145 billion, and SAP, up 1.8% after its third-quarter statement.

All of that makes Wednesday's session a stale memory. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.1%, chip ETFs gained around two percent and the VIX slid to 16.68 — before the prints. Nasdaq futures now trade 1.6% lower, gold is down 1.4% near $4,090, and US jobless claims print at 12:30 UTC.

  1. Asia — Seoul gives back the rebound with interest: Kospi −4.1%
  2. Earnings night — the reaction, not the result, set the direction
  3. Lam Research — the equipment read fails its own test, −7.2%
  4. Meta — record revenue, a bigger AI budget, and this time the spend gets paid
  5. Tesla — the call gets graded, not the quarter: −3.3%
  6. IBM — a double beat, sold 4.6%: the no-middle record extends
  7. Futures and cross-assets — the night undid the day
  8. Closelooknet indices — Wednesday's bounce came without breadth
  9. Calendar — claims at 12:30 UTC, Japan CPI tonight, the big spenders next week
  10. Gene Munster — Deepwater Asset Management

  1. Asia — Seoul gives back the rebound with interest: Kospi −4.1%

    Structure
    What
    The Kospi fell 4.1% — erasing Tuesday's 2.6% rebound and more — with SK Hynix down 6.5% and Samsung 4.6%. The Hang Seng lost 3.2%, the Nikkei 2.6%, Taiwan 1.8%. TSMC's Taipei shares are only 0.8% lower: the selling is concentrated exactly where Lam Research's customers live — memory — not on the foundry.
    If
    If Seoul closes near these levels, the memory complex has fully rejoined the chip bear market it briefly left on Tuesday.
    Why
    SK Hynix and Samsung buy the machines Lam sells — a sold equipment beat in New York and a 6% drop in the largest memory buyer are the same trade seen from both ends of the supply chain.
    Then
    Watch the European semi open (ASML, ASM International) for the hand-off, and the US memory names (Micron, the DRAM basket that rose 3% Wednesday) at the open.

  2. Earnings night — the reaction, not the result, set the direction

    Structure
    What
    Four of five reporters beat earnings estimates; three trade lower anyway. After hours: Lam Research −7.2%, IBM −4.6%, Tesla −3.3%, against Meta +2.2% and SAP +1.8%. All five had closed Wednesday's regular session higher or near flat — IBM +3.9%, Tesla +3.4%, SAP +1.6%, Meta +0.5%, Lam −1.0%.
    If
    If the after-hours losses hold into the regular session, Wednesday's tech bounce reverses at the open.
    Why
    When beats get sold, the market is grading something other than the quarter — positioning, guidance, or the cycle itself. Three beats sold in one night is a verdict on the tape, not on three companies.
    Then
    Watch the open against the after-hours prints — a recovery toward the close levels would say the night-session selling was thin; follow-through confirms it.
  3. The Print Record Beat histories against how the stock actually traded — one earnings name per day, all season. Open the Print Record →

  4. Lam Research — the equipment read fails its own test, −7.2%

    Structure
    What
    Lam beat on earnings and revenue — its ninth EPS beat and tenth revenue beat in ten reports — and dropped 7.2% after hours to about 242. The after-hours tape around it followed: Applied Materials −3.8%, CoreWeave −3.4%, Nebius −3.3%, Lumentum −2.3%, Coherent −2.0%.
    If
    If the stock stays below roughly 253 through Monday's close, the report is graded as punished in our three-session reaction record — after TSMC and ASML both graded flat on record quarters.
    Why
    Lam is the most reaction-prone of the chip-equipment bellwethers, with the heaviest memory exposure. A beat that still gets sold from a stock already down 39% from its June high says the market is grading the spending cycle, not the quarter.
    Then
    Watch whether the US equipment names open where the after-hours left them — and whether the selling stays in equipment or spreads to the fabless names that bounced Wednesday.

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Today in line 11: four beats, three sold, and Korea down 4% by morning — what one night's grading says about the chip bear market, and why Meta's green print is the week's most important tell.

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