Korea Stock Market Halted: KOSPI Tumbles 8% On Chip Sell-Off And Fed Fears

Published by

Anjali Belgaumkar

October 15, 2026

A downward-trending red market graph displaying the flags of South Korea and the United States.

South Korea’s KOSPI fell as much as 8% on Thursday, triggering a circuit breaker that halted trading at midday, according to market posts on X. Chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix led the losses with declines of 9% to 11%. The drop wiped out the index’s gains since its June peak and extended its longest losing run in years. Earlier in the session, Korea Exchange paused program selling for five minutes after the index fell 6%. Market commentators linked the selloff to stronger-than-expected US inflation data, which raised expectations of tighter Federal Reserve policy, as well as concerns over AI spending, debt at providers such as CoreWeave, and rising Chinese chip competition. Japan’s Nikkei also fell nearly 4%.

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