South Korea's KOSPI plunges 8% as chip stocks trigger circuit breaker

South Korea's KOSPI stock index plunged over 8% in early trading Friday, triggering a circuit breaker as chip and technology shares led a sell-off that pushed the index below 5,000 points for the first time in nine months. The Korea Exchange halted all stock and derivatives trading for 20 minutes at 9:03 a.m. local time. The decline followed the worst single-day session for US stock markets in over a year on Thursday, driven by a sharp unwind in technology and semiconductor shares. Fresh uncertainty over AI and data center policies after the Democratic Party's sweeping gains in US midterm elections sent shockwaves through hardware and chip suppliers. Jun Kwang-woo, chairman of the Institute for Global Economics, called the drop an overreaction to the election outcome, noting AI infrastructure building may slow due to concerns in states including Texas. He expressed hope the market would stabilize soon.