Daily Briefing — July 28, 2026 | A Brutal Day for Chipmakers, a Calm Day for Everyone Else

South Korea's Kospi plunges nearly 11%, its worst session in years, as SK Hynix and Samsung both drop double digits and the selloff spreads to Japan, the Nasdaq-100, and major US chip names like Micron, AMD, and Dell. We unpack the two forces behind it — a broad profit-taking rotation out of chipmakers and fresh reports of China ramping up its own chip-equipment production — alongside growing scrutiny of circular AI financing arrangements between chipmakers and their customers. Yet away from that narrow group, markets are calm: the Dow rallies on strong Coca-Cola and Sherwin-Williams earnings, oil falls to a one-week low on renewed optimism about a US-Iran deal, and the VIX actually declines. We preview tomorrow's Federal Reserve decision and the stakes it now carries alongside this week's hyperscaler earnings from Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, and Qualcomm, and close with brief notes on gold and bitcoin. This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice.