Odaily reported, citing data from MSX.COM, that U.S. storage-related stocks were broadly lower in premarket trading. Micron Technology (MU.O) fell 4.8%, while SanDisk (SNDK.O), SK Hynix (SKHY.O), and Western Digital (WDC.O) were down about 5.5%. The report also noted that MSX.COM is a decentralized RWA trading platform that has listed hundreds of RWA tokens. Its offerings cover U.S. stock and ETF token underlyings including AAPL, AMZN, GOOGL, META, MSFT, NFLX, and NVDA. No further market details were provided in the source item.

South Korea’s preliminary second-quarter household credit data is due on Aug. 19, with markets focused on whether the balance has reached or crossed KRW 2,000 trillion. The figure matters because first-quarter household credit already stood at KRW 1,993 trillion, while household lending continued to rise in May and June. That has kept attention on whether household leverage and housing prices could push the Bank of Korea back into a tighter policy stance. The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2.75% on July 16, its first increase since January 2023. In its policy framing, the central bank pointed to housing prices, household loan growth, and financial stability pressure. June CPI rose 3.2% year over year, while lending data showed household debt growth remained elevated across the broader financial system and within banks. M&G Investments Asia fixed income head Low Guan Yi has taken a different view. According to media-reported remarks summarized in the source article, markets may be pricing too much additional tightening and too much bond supply. If AI-driven semiconductor demand improves profits at companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, stronger tax revenue could reduce government borrowing needs. That leaves investors weighing two competing forces: stronger exports and fiscal support on one side, and persistent household leverage and property-related financial stability risks on the other.

ChainCatcher reported that several storage chip-related stocks moved higher, citing market data from Gate. SanDisk (SNDK.O) rose more than 10%, marking the biggest gain among the names mentioned. Micron Technology (MU.O) was up 5.6%, while SK Hynix (SKHY.O) and Western Digital (WDC.O) each posted gains of more than 6%. The update was presented as a market snapshot and did not include additional context on trading drivers, broader sector performance, or a specific time window beyond the published report. All figures in the report were attributed to Gate market data.

South Korean retail investors are increasing leveraged bets on domestic equities as the local stock market rebounds from recent lows. Data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, or KOFIA, showed that margin debt used to buy shares reached 30.93 trillion won, equivalent to $21.8 billion, as of Thursday. That compares with 27.44 trillion won on Aug. 3. The rise in margin balances comes as major index heavyweights including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have recovered sharply from earlier market turbulence tied to concerns over profits from AI-related investment. The rebound in those stocks appears to have encouraged local investors to return to margin-funded buying. Analysts cited in the source said worries linked to AI investment have eased, and that there are no immediate signs of the South Korean stock market cooling. On that view, margin balances could keep rising for some time and may reach a fresh record.

SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won said in a recent media interview at the company’s headquarters in South Korea that demand from the AI ecosystem has already outpaced the company’s memory supply capacity. According to Chey, customers are now asking for shipment volumes close to double their previous demand, reflecting what he described as an explosive jump in memory consumption tied to AI computing. Chey said expanding production capacity could take four to five years, while competition for memory chips has become so intense that he compared it to a war. He added that without sufficient memory, customers cannot produce AI computing equipment or AI chips. He also said demand for AI servers continues to surge, leaving high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, in short supply. Some large technology companies, he said, have even traveled to South Korea in advance to lock in long-term agreements. Chey warned that next year could bring the worst memory shortage on record. He also compared today’s AI industry to a four-year-old child and said memory demand is likely to climb sharply as the sector matures. In his view, usage of AI agents could increase 77 times over the next five years.

A recent rebound in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix has lifted related single-stock leveraged ETFs, but investors who bought near the June 25 peak are still sitting on steep losses, according to Korean media cited by BlockBeats on Aug. 16. As of Aug. 14, Samsung Electronics was down 23.43% from its June 25 close, while SK Hynix had fallen 43.61% over the same span. Data showed that seven Samsung leveraged ETFs posted an average loss of 52.25% from June 25, and seven SK Hynix leveraged ETFs were down an average of 76.51%. That means a 1 million won investment made at the time would now be worth only about 478,000 won for Samsung-linked products and 235,000 won for SK Hynix-linked products on average. Based on current net asset values, the two ETF groups would need to rise about 109.4% and 325.7%, respectively, just to break even. The report added that because these leveraged ETFs track twice the underlying stock’s daily return, recovery math cannot be reduced to a simple 2x relationship, especially when repeated price swings create volatility drag. Under a hypothetical scenario where each stock rises by the same proportion every day for 20 trading days without any declines, Samsung would need to climb about 45.2% from current levels to 398,600 won, while SK Hynix would need to rise about 109.1% to 3.439 million won for the average ETF losses to be erased.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said the rush for memory chips now feels "like a war," arguing that artificial intelligence has pushed the sector into a new phase where demand is no longer driven only by consumer devices. In a CNBC interview cited by Tencent Technology and republished by ChainCatcher, Chey said SK Hynix held nearly half of the global HBM market in 2025 and had become one of the most important suppliers to AI chip companies including Nvidia. The company is now pursuing what he described as the world’s largest memory wafer fab expansion plan, with $72 billion in investment aimed at tripling capacity by 2034. Chey said AI agents could increase about tenfold over the next five years from a 2025 base, and total memory demand over the next decade could approach five times today’s capacity. He also warned that lead times for new supply run four to five years, while customers are already asking for close to double the chip volumes. To manage the risk of overbuilding, he pointed to long-term contracts, joint fabs and "Memory as a Service" as ways to share demand uncertainty with customers.

Global markets spent the week trading around four linked themes: softer U.S. inflation data, a reduced expectation of further Federal Reserve tightening, rising geopolitical strain in the Middle East, and continued enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. U.S. July CPI rose 3.4% year over year, core CPI increased 2.5%, and PPI slowed to 4.7%, prompting investors to cut expectations for a September rate hike. Even so, the long end of the Treasury market stayed under pressure, with the 30-year U.S. Treasury yield climbing to 5.22%, its highest level since 2001, as deficit concerns kept long-term borrowing costs elevated. At the same time, AI remained the market’s main capital story. Nvidia, together with BlackRock, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs, is seeking to mobilize more than $500 billion for AI data center construction. In Asia, South Korea’s KOSPI rebounded nearly 22% from its late-July low, led by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on stronger AI server and HBM demand. Meanwhile, remarks by Donald Trump on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s response, and the deployment of the USS Washington added another layer of risk to the macro backdrop.