KOSPI jumps 3.5%, Nikkei tops 66,000 as chip stocks surge

Asian stock markets rallied on the morning of September 7 as a wave of buying in semiconductor shares swept through Tokyo and Seoul, lifting South Korea's KOSPI toward the 7,000 level and pushing Japan's Nikkei 225 above 66,000 points for the first time in weeks. The gains followed a strong session for U.S. chip stocks on Friday, September 4, when the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index PHLX Semiconductor ↗ 3.91% surged over 3%.fred.stlouisfed+1

South Korea's KOSPI jumped 3.5% at the open, trading near 6,921 points as chip heavyweights led the advance. SK Hynix ↗ 2.78% rose more than 5%, while Samsung Electronics climbed over 4%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained more than 2%, crossing 66,000 to trade around 66,367 points. SoftBank Group surged nearly 7%, while Kioxia Holdings jumped roughly 8%.reuters+1

U.S. Jobs Data Sparked Friday's Chip Rally

The catalyst for the Asian surge originated in the United States. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 162,000 in August, nearly triple the consensus forecast of about 56,000 and the largest monthly gain in five months. While the stronger-than-expected employment data pushed U.S. long-term interest rates higher and weighed on broader indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite, semiconductor stocks bucked the trend. The SOX index climbed 3.37%, closing at 11,735.26 after opening the session at 11,352.13. Memory-related names were particularly strong, with Micron Technology ↗ 5.12% gaining 6% amid reports of plans to double its high-bandwidth memory production capacity, and SanDisk rising nearly 12%.tradingeconomics+3

Asian Chipmakers Ride the Momentum

The Friday rally in U.S. chip stocks provided direct fuel for Asian markets that are deeply tied to the global semiconductor supply chain. Buying was broad across the Tokyo market's chip sector, with Advantest, Tokyo Electron, Disco ↗ 13.02%, and SUMCO all trading higher. Kioxia, which operates flash memory factories jointly with SanDisk, drew heavy pre-market demand, with buy orders of 48.1 billion yen against 22.6 billion yen in sell orders before the opening bell.moomoo

Ahead of the Monday session, CNBC reported that the Nikkei 225 was "poised to rise," with Chicago futures last trading at 66,085 compared with the index's previous close of 65,020.94. The session also brought stock-specific catalysts in Japan: JX Advanced Metals continued to surge after being added to the Nikkei 225 index in a periodic rebalancing announced on September 4, alongside Kokusai Electric and Capcom.cnbc+1