Andy Chen

Tradingkey - Asian equity markets were mostly lower on Monday, with technology stocks leading the decline. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated over the weekend, while rising safe-haven demand and surging oil prices weighed on market sentiment. Last Friday, U.S. Treasury yields climbed to historical highs, putting broad pressure on U.S. tech stocks; as of writing, U.S. stock index futures remain under pressure. Furthermore, the market is awaiting earnings from AI giant Nvidia (NVDA), scheduled for release this Wednesday (May 20). Investors are looking to the results to gauge whether the global stock market rally driven by artificial intelligence can be sustained.

Tradingkey - Geopolitical tensions escalated sharply over the weekend. Following the conclusion of Trump's visit to China, tensions between the U.S. and Iran flared up once again. Renewed expectations of a long-term blockade of the Strait of Hormuz pushed both major crude oil futures to nearly two-week highs. As of press time, Brent crude broke above the $110 mark, rising 1.80% to $111.45 per barrel, having touched its highest level since May 5 during intraday trading. WTI crude oil futures rose 2.39% to $103.41 per barrel.

Tradingkey - During the early Asian trading session on May 18, the KOSPI Index fell more than 4% at one point, hitting a near one-week low of 7,142.71. As of press time, the index remained down 1.57% at 7,375.55. Notably, the index closed down 6.12% in the previous session at 7,493.18, with the two-day volatility reaching a range of up to 904 points. After KOSPI 200 futures dropped 5%, the Korea Exchange triggered a circuit breaker mechanism, suspending program trading for five minutes.

Tradingkey - Since the beginning of this year, the wave of Agentic AI has driven an exponential increase in market demand for CPU chips, shifting the previous narrative that only GPUs would significantly benefit from AI. Current mainstream Agentic AI includes Anthropic’s Claude Cowork and OpenClaw. In the Agentic AI era, the role of the CPU has transitioned from an auxiliary component in the computing power value chain to the central control hub of agent systems. In this era, a CPU’s concurrency capabilities, memory bandwidth, and scheduling efficiency directly determine a system’s response speed and processing power. Once agent concurrency exceeds the CPU's capacity limit, issues such as request queuing and tool call failures arise, directly impacting user experience and system stability.

Tradingkey - With the rise of AI-generated content, a new wave of unicorns are being created. The most notable of these is Anthropic. Anthropic is generating a lot of buzz in the investment community in addition to developing Claude. Anthropic is viewed as one of the fastest-growing, and most promis

Tradingkey - Amid the meeting between the heads of state of China and the U.S., fresh conflict erupted in the Strait of Hormuz, putting broad pressure on Asia-Pacific equity markets, with the South Korean KOSPI Index plunging over 6%. According to the latest reports, India's Ministry of External Affairs stated on May 14 that an Indian merchant vessel was attacked off the coast of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz. On the same day, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi remarked that no military solution exists regarding Iran and that the Iranian people will never yield to any threats or pressure. In South Korea, the KOSPI briefly surged past 8,000 points in early trading to hit a record high, reaching an intra-day peak of 8,046.78 points. It subsequently fluctuated downward, at one point falling more than 7%. By the close, the index fell 6.12% to end at 7,493.18 points.

Tradingkey - On May 15, during the late Asian trading session, gold and silver prices saw a significant decline. Spot gold (XAUUSD) dropped more than 2% at one point, hitting a low of $4,556.45. As of press time, it remained down 1.74%, trading at $4,571.33. Spot silver (XAGUSD) fell over 6% at one point to a low of $77.56. As of press time, it was still down 5.92% at $78.52. Rising oil prices coupled with higher U.S. Treasury yields collectively squeezed the valuation space for non-yielding precious metals, serving as the primary driver behind this round of gold's decline.

Tradingkey - Amid the summit between the heads of state of China and the United States, news of Ford Motor (F) entering the AI supply chain through a cross-sector expansion has boosted the company's stock price. According to media reports, the Detroit automaker officially launched its new subsidiary, Ford Energy, this week, focusing on providing battery energy storage systems for data centers, utilities, and other industrial and commercial customers in the U.S. Lisa Drake, President of Ford Energy, stated that the deep intersection of rapid data center development, large-scale renewable energy integration, and grid resilience requirements has created a significant structural gap in the global energy market. Ford Energy was established to fill this gap. Driven by this news, Ford’s stock price recorded a cumulative two-day gain of 20.77%, closing at $14.48. The share price reached a four-year high since February 2022.

Tradingkey - During the Asian morning session on May 15, the KOSPI opened lower but trended upward, briefly surpassing 8,000 points to hit a record high, reaching an intraday peak of 8,046.78 points. As of press time, the KOSPI had reversed to a 0.4% decline, trading at 7,949.71. Market analysis suggests three major tailwinds are supporting the upward trajectory of the South Korean stock market: tech giants continue to scale up capital expenditure, significant room remains for the expansion of AI application penetration, and geopolitical factors alongside data sovereignty are driving increased investment from non-US countries. Given the high weighting of AI-related industries among South Korean listed companies, these factors are expected to provide continued support for the market. Furthermore, corporate governance is poised to become a second structural support pillar by 2026, alongside earnings improvement. If companies continue to deliver on share buybacks and cancellations, dividend increases, asset efficiency optimization, and enhanced transparency in information disclosure, the market pricing of the "Korea Discount" is expected to narrow further, driving a valuation recovery for low P/B blue chips from a tactical phase into a sustained trend.

Tradingkey - On April 13, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in its monthly report that global crude oil inventories are shrinking at a record pace due to supply disruptions triggered by the Iran war, which could drive oil prices even higher. The report highlighted that, faced with unprecedented disruptions to Middle Eastern crude supplies, importing nations are depleting their oil stocks at record speeds. In April, the average daily reduction in global crude oil and refined product inventories neared 4 million barrels. This scale of depletion exceeds the combined consumption of the United Kingdom and Germany, significantly undermining the buffer capacity of nations to manage supply shocks.

Tradingkey - On May 12, CME Group and GPU market data provider Silicon Data jointly announced plans to launch the world's first standardized computing power futures product in the second half of 2026, pending final regulatory approval. This marks the official entry of computing power assets into the era of standardized derivatives trading.

Tradingkey - Markets continue to monitor details of the meeting between the U.S. and Chinese heads of state, with major Asia-Pacific equity markets hovering at high levels. U.S. inflation rose to 3.8% in April, a nearly three-year high, weighing on U.S. chip stocks. Samsung may face the longest strike in its history, which pressured Japanese and South Korean stocks in early trading before they fluctuated upward to close higher. U.S. President Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening. According to sources close to the matter, the summit will discuss Iran, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, and rare earths. The business delegation for this visit spans technology, finance, aviation, and agriculture, including Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook, and executives from semiconductor firms such as Qualcomm (QCOM) and Micron (MU). The aviation sector includes Boeing (BA) CEO Kelly Ortberg, while the financial sector includes Citigroup (C), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Blackstone Group (

Tradingkey - At 8:30 AM ET on May 12, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the April CPI report, a critical window for verifying the transmission of oil prices to inflation. Data indicated that U.S. inflation ran hot in April, with the year-on-year increase reaching 3.8%, the highest in near

Tradingkey - The imminent meeting between the U.S. and Chinese heads of state and the upcoming release of U.S. CPI data have fueled a strong "wait-and-see" sentiment in the market. Asia-Pacific stock markets showed mixed performance; Japanese and Taiwanese stocks edged higher, while the rally in South Korean equities paused, closing down 2.29%. The Nikkei 225 Index closed up 0.52% at 62,742.57 points. During the session, it reached a high of 63,218.51 and a low of 52,158.43, continuing to hover at elevated levels.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the April CPI report. Top investment banks now widely believe that the Federal Reserve's first rate cut will be delayed until 2027, with no cuts expected in 2026. JPMorgan Chase has developed three scenarios based on the CPI data—even in an optim

Tradingkey - During the early trading session on May 12, the KOSPI Index briefly touched the 8,000-point mark at the open before plunging more than 5% to a low of 7,421.71 points. As of press time, the index remains down 1.24% at 7,725.33 points. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together account for nearly half of the KOSPI's total market capitalization, were the primary drivers of this flash crash. Currently, SK Hynix is down 3.62% at 1.144 million KRW, while Samsung Electronics has fallen 2.28% to 279,000 KRW.

Tradingkey - Strong US employment data combined with an AI chip trading frenzy propelled US stocks to new record highs on Friday, marking the S&P 500’s sixth consecutive weekly gain, while chip stocks boosted the Nasdaq by 1.71%. Fueled by bullish sentiment in semiconductor investments, Asian equity markets broadly opened higher today. Both the KOSPI and the Nikkei 225 hit new record highs, though intraday performance diverged. South Korea's KOSPI index climbed after a high opening to reach an all-time intraday peak of 7,899.32 points. It closed up 4.32% at 7,822.19 points. Over the five trading days in May, the index has recorded a cumulative gain of 18.54%. Among heavyweight stocks, SK Hynix surged 12.87%, Samsung Electronics rose 6.42%, and Hyundai Motor gained 4.89%.

Tradingkey - Last Friday (May 8), U.S. tech stocks strengthened again, supported by the dual catalysts of improving geopolitical conditions and stellar corporate earnings. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.71% to hit a record high, closing at 26,247.08 points. The PHLX Semiconductor Index jumped 5.51% to close at 11,775.5 points, also reaching a record high. Among mega-cap tech stocks, Micron Technology (MU) surged 15.49%, Intel (INTC) rose 13.96%, AMD (AMD) gained 11.44%, Qualcomm (QCOM) climbed 8.17%, and Tesla (TSLA) increased 4.02%.

Tradingkey - International oil prices surged during early Asian trading hours after U.S. President Trump and Iran rejected each other's latest responses to long-term peace proposals. Both major crude oil futures rose by over 3%, with WTI crude briefly hitting the $100 mark again. As of press time, WTI is up 3.79% at $99/bbl, while Brent crude has gained 3.29% to reach $104.62/bbl.

TradingKey - The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the April CPI report on May 12 at 8:30 a.m. ET. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict in late February, the global energy market has experienced the most severe geopolitical supply shock in history. As the conflict enters its third month, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains significantly below pre-war levels, with approximately 20% of the world's oil transit routes still facing "interruption." This inflation report will serve as a critical validation window for the transmission effects of oil prices.