Shares of Nova, Teradyne, and Kulicke and Soffa fell sharply in afternoon trading as investors took profits across the chip sector following a strong first-half rally and escalating Middle East tensions. The selloff was triggered by a more than 5% drop in SK Hynix shares in South Korea after a brokerage lowered its second-quarter earnings forecast, projecting operating profit of 60.4 trillion won, roughly 8% below the 65 trillion won market consensus. The expected miss stems from SK Hynix's heavy reliance on long-term fixed-price contracts for its premium High Bandwidth Memory chips, which prevented the company from benefiting from recent 30% to 50% spot market price surges. This revelation prompted a reassessment of the memory sector, dragging down peers such as Micron Technology and SanDisk, and accelerating profit-taking amid renewed Middle East tensions and a shift toward safer assets. Nova fell 5.3%, Teradyne dropped 5.5%, and Kulicke and Soffa declined 6.6%.
SK Hynix Inc
Kulicke and Soffa Industries Inc
Micron Technology Inc
Sandisk Corp
Teradyne Inc
Nova Ltd