The Jury Votes Early — the Judge Reports Wednesday

What the pre-market is doing

US futures are split along the morning's own theme: Nasdaq and S&P futures are marginally higher, Dow futures softer as oil rebounds from a week in which it lost almost nine percent. The dollar starts the week where it ended the last one — offered.

Asia answered the weekend's one open question first. Tokyo's silent Friday selling in the AI hardware names did not extend: the Nikkei closed +1.9% at 66,880 with the chip names leading the reversal, and the session carries extra weight because Tokyo is shut Tuesday for Mountain Day. Seoul joined and then thought better of it — Samsung closed +1.5% and SK Hynix +1.1%, both well off intraday highs near +3–4%, as foreign selling pared the Kospi's gains; the Kosdaq had spiked nearly 6% intraday, enough to trigger a buy-side halt at 9:50 local.

The Morning 10 called that a half-confirmation: the dissent reversed in Tokyo, Seoul joined but is not yet committed. The US session inherits the question.