# Best Quarter for Chip Stocks, Yen Steadies

An episode of [Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia Edition](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663863437), 1 Jul 2026, 19 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/58e85be7-dbb5-4043-afed-af80014dc0b3/86ece9e3-f6e8-4584-b66b-b47a00321ef5/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=27143354-63aa-4ac5-965d-af80014dc0d3

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Chip stocks posted their best quarter ever, extending an extraordinary start to the year driven by insatiable demand for artificial intelligence equipment. But after recent jitters sent the stocks tumbling, investors are wondering how much further the rally can go. "The story of the past six months is the market going all-in on AI infrastructure, but now people are asking if this is sustainable and if we should be worried," said CJ Muse, senior managing director and technology analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index jumped 3.9% on Tuesday to bring its second-quarter gain to 88%, its best quarter ever. It soared 101% in the first half, putting it on track for its best year in its history. In contrast, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index climbed 28% in the second quarter, while the S&P 500 Index rose 15%. It was both of their best quarters since 2020, but the performances were dwarfed by the surge in chip stocks. We speak to Lianting Tu, Bloomberg's Managing Editor for Asia Equities. Plus - The yen traded around 162.65 per dollar after falling to a 40-year low this week. The currency's slide to a four-decade low against the dollar left traders eyeing Japan's next intervention threshold. After the currency weakened past the 162 per dollar level on Tuesday, strategists increasingly pointed to 163 and beyond, arguing the Finance Ministry may tolerate a weaker yen than it did in 2024. Bloomberg TV hosts Yvonne Man and Avril Hong spoke to Christopher Wong, Executive Director and FX Strategist at OCBC. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. Welcome to the Daybreak
[0:12] Speaker 1: Asia podcast. I'm Beg Krisner. In the US session, we
[0:15] Speaker 1: had the chip makers extending gains. On the final day
[0:18] Speaker 1: of the second quarter, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index was up
[0:22] Speaker 1: three point nine percent, and if you're wondering, for the
[0:25] Speaker 1: entire quarter, the socks rallied eighty eight percent, its best
[0:30] Speaker 1: quarter ever. Now, we had shares in companies that supply
[0:33] Speaker 1: semiconductor making equipment rallying. That was due to increased investments
[0:38] Speaker 1: announced by both Samsung and sk Heinez. As one example,
[0:42] Speaker 1: we had US listed shares in the Dutch semiconductor equipment
[0:46] Speaker 1: maker ASML rising more than five and a half percent.
[0:49] Speaker 1: American rival Applied Materials was up four percent, and US
[0:54] Speaker 1: based KLA Corp up more than eight percent. For a
[0:58] Speaker 1: closer look at what we're seeing in the Asia Pacific,
[1:00] Speaker 1: let's bring in Bloomberg's Leonting two. Leonting is Managing editor
[1:04] Speaker 1: for Asian Markets. She joins from Singapore. Thank you for
[1:08] Speaker 1: being here. Can you talk to me a little bit
[1:10] Speaker 1: about what we're hearing from Samsung and sk Heinez The
[1:14] Speaker 1: expansion of cap X. They want to build out two
[1:17] Speaker 1: chip making plants a piece, I guess at a total
[1:20] Speaker 1: cost of something greater than five hundred billion dollars. Is
[1:23] Speaker 1: this all about the AI trade. I'm going to imagine
[1:26] Speaker 1: that you're going to say, yes, it is.
[1:29] Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the bigger picture here is really the
[1:33] Speaker 2: Korean government is, you know, taking such big measures to
[1:40] Speaker 2: announce these investment plans. That means they are taking AI
[1:44] Speaker 2: as a very important part of national sort of strategic
[1:48] Speaker 2: vision for the next decade for the country overall, and
[1:52] Speaker 2: also it matters a lot to national security. So I
[1:56] Speaker 2: think Korea really wants to maintain that lead in AI
[2:01] Speaker 2: via these two chip giants. Now what that means for
[2:05] Speaker 2: the market overall is that, you know, just like the
[2:09] Speaker 2: hyperscalers that we saw in the US spending hundreds of
[2:12] Speaker 2: billions of dollars in the whole you know, data center
[2:15] Speaker 2: buildout and all the AI chiquipment equipment purchases, these two
[2:20] Speaker 2: memory chip giants in Korea will also do so in
[2:24] Speaker 2: the next decade, and then that will have a report
[2:27] Speaker 2: effect for so many different companies you mentioned quite a
[2:31] Speaker 2: few listed in Europe and US. In Asia as well,
[2:35] Speaker 2: were seeing you know, Malaysia and Taiwan to be the
[2:39] Speaker 2: big beneficiaries because for example, Malaysia is sort of not
[2:42] Speaker 2: really talked about by investors, but it has a lot
[2:45] Speaker 2: of chip testing, chip packaging, chip equipment manufacturing companies listed there,
[2:51] Speaker 2: and that is something people are looking out for, sort
[2:54] Speaker 2: of the report effect the second order winners from these
[2:57] Speaker 2: huge amounts of spending.
[2:59] Speaker 1: So your point about the way in which the South
[3:01] Speaker 1: Korean government is involved in this build out. The export
[3:04] Speaker 1: data for South Korea for the month of June was
[3:07] Speaker 1: super strong. This is another part of the AI story.
[3:11] Speaker 2: Yes, that one is also it just continued sort of
[3:15] Speaker 2: strengths playing out right, and it's unsurprising that Korea is
[3:19] Speaker 2: relying more and more on chip and electronics related exports.
[3:25] Speaker 2: And there's a little bit of conundrum for the government
[3:28] Speaker 2: as well because of this boom in chip export and
[3:32] Speaker 2: so called chip filation is really playing out in Korea
[3:35] Speaker 2: as well. Inflation is really going rising high, right. It's
[3:40] Speaker 2: just a lot of chip component prices going up as well,
[3:43] Speaker 2: and that is that means that the central bank may
[3:46] Speaker 2: have to high rates faster than expected. So the next
[3:50] Speaker 2: rate hiking rate decision, as you say from the Bok,
[3:53] Speaker 2: is on July sixteenth, and if indeed they turned a
[3:57] Speaker 2: lot more hawkish than expected, and that does not vote
[4:00] Speaker 2: well for the AI rady that we're seeing in Korea
[4:03] Speaker 2: right now.
[4:03] Speaker 1: I'm wondering Leon Tin if we could say the same
[4:05] Speaker 1: about the Bank of Korea because I was looking at
[4:07] Speaker 1: the ton Con survey for the second quarter, surprisingly strong
[4:12] Speaker 1: business center it again, it reflects this very very powerful
[4:16] Speaker 1: demand for artificial intelligence. So talk to me a little
[4:20] Speaker 1: bit about the companies in Japan involved in this AI
[4:24] Speaker 1: trade and the degree to which this type of business
[4:27] Speaker 1: activity is going to put some more pressure on the BOJ.
[4:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, indeed, it's all inter linked, isn't it. For Japan,
[4:35] Speaker 2: It's a similar story when it comes to all the companies.
[4:39] Speaker 2: They are getting involved and becoming beneficiaries of the AI boom,
[4:43] Speaker 2: and Japanese AI companies are sort of lowered down in
[4:46] Speaker 2: the AI supply chain. They are really focused on equipments
[4:51] Speaker 2: related to semiconductors. And yeah, I think Japan is facing
[4:56] Speaker 2: a great export boom related to these AI related components
[5:00] Speaker 2: as well. What does that mean for the BOJ And
[5:02] Speaker 2: I think it means, you know, the BOJ is just
[5:05] Speaker 2: lacking even more behind the curve, and that's really playing
[5:09] Speaker 2: out in the yen right hitting the weakest level since
[5:13] Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six, and there is more expectation about how
[5:17] Speaker 2: the Japanese officials are having higher tolerance for a weaker yen,
[5:21] Speaker 2: and because of course that helps with the export as well,
[5:25] Speaker 2: So you know, it's overall in turn doesn't translate well
[5:30] Speaker 2: to those companies in Japan that need to have a
[5:32] Speaker 2: lot of imports, because you know, bear in mind, Japan
[5:35] Speaker 2: is also a big energy importer, so there are beneficiaries,
[5:39] Speaker 2: but there are a big swath of companies in Japan
[5:42] Speaker 2: that may be losing out on a weeker yen.
[5:44] Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you brought up the energy component because
[5:47] Speaker 1: even though there has not yet been a conclusion in
[5:50] Speaker 1: war with Iran, we've seen energy prices come way off
[5:55] Speaker 1: some of the highs that we had a few months back.
[5:57] Speaker 1: Is this providing any relief to economies in the APEC.
[6:01] Speaker 2: Region, Yeah, definitely. I mean you would think overall it
[6:07] Speaker 2: would provide more relief for central banks. But it turns out,
[6:12] Speaker 2: as we just discussed, that chip and memory prices related
[6:16] Speaker 2: inflation is actually right now becoming more dominant, right, and
[6:21] Speaker 2: that is something that global central banks have to take
[6:25] Speaker 2: note the fact that Apple raised prices for its iPad
[6:30] Speaker 2: and mac That sent a sort of a bit of
[6:32] Speaker 2: a wake up call to a lot of companies and
[6:35] Speaker 2: governments that even the world's most powerful tech companies cannot
[6:39] Speaker 2: absorb such inflation in the chip prices. So, but you know,
[6:45] Speaker 2: the one thing I wanted to mention is obviously India.
[6:48] Speaker 2: India was considered a big sort of taking the most
[6:52] Speaker 2: hit from this homost straight related energy crisis, and right
[6:58] Speaker 2: now we are seeing India's acts quite benefiting from the
[7:01] Speaker 2: lower energy prices. Investors are letting out a sigh of
[7:05] Speaker 2: relief because you know, that means India could potentially spend
[7:11] Speaker 2: less in subsidizing or the fuels for the consumers, and
[7:16] Speaker 2: that could also mean better earnings for India companies. That's
[7:19] Speaker 2: why you're seeing India in June actually outperformed emerging markets.
[7:24] Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I have to ask about
[7:27] Speaker 1: the news from Anthropic, the company saying earlier that it
[7:31] Speaker 1: has received notice from the Commerce Department that the US
[7:35] Speaker 1: government has essentially lifted export controls on Anthropics. Claude Fable
[7:40] Speaker 1: five and mee those five AI models in a post
[7:44] Speaker 1: earlier on x Anthropics said it's going to begin restoring
[7:48] Speaker 1: access on Wednesday, that would be tomorrow in the US.
[7:53] Speaker 1: Is this having any influence in the way that people
[7:56] Speaker 1: are thinking about AI in Asia right now?
[8:01] Speaker 2: Yeah. The most direct impact are these Chinese large language
[8:06] Speaker 2: model companies. There are two listed in Hong Kong called
[8:10] Speaker 2: Jipu and Minimax, and they actually directly compete with Nentropic
[8:16] Speaker 2: on those advanced models when it comes to Internet security,
[8:21] Speaker 2: and they actually really benefited from Anthropics, I should say,
[8:26] Speaker 2: the US government's move to ban the export of that
[8:29] Speaker 2: model from Anthropic. So the move that now the government
[8:35] Speaker 2: would ease the export control on Nentropic, that certainly doesn't
[8:40] Speaker 2: vote well for the likes of Jipu and Minimax and
[8:43] Speaker 2: Hong Kong markets are close today, so we'll see how
[8:46] Speaker 2: those shares actually react more.
[8:48] Speaker 1: All right, Leon Ting will leave it there. It's always
[8:50] Speaker 1: a pleasure. Thank you so very much. Bloomberg's Leontin two.
[8:53] Speaker 1: She is Managing editor for Asian Markets. Joining today from
[8:57] Speaker 1: Singapore here on the Daybreak Asia podcast. Welcome back to
[9:07] Speaker 1: the Daybreak Asia Podcast. I'm deg Krisner. We turn next
[9:10] Speaker 1: to the Foreign Exchange where the yen has steadied against
[9:14] Speaker 1: the dollar, trading at around one sixty two sixty five.
[9:17] Speaker 1: That's very near a forty year low against the greenback. Now,
[9:21] Speaker 1: this slide has left currency traders eyeing the next intervention
[9:25] Speaker 1: from monetary authorities in Japan, and that's where we begin
[9:29] Speaker 1: our conversation with Christopher Wong, executive director and FX strategist
[9:34] Speaker 1: at OCBC. Christopher spoke with Bloomberg TV host Yvonne Mann
[9:38] Speaker 1: and April Hong.
[9:39] Speaker 3: We are watching, of course, some of these key levels
[9:43] Speaker 3: when it comes to the yen and the Korean one.
[9:45] Speaker 3: What are you watching specifically as far as intervention is
[9:49] Speaker 3: concerned for the Japanese currency.
[9:54] Speaker 4: I think what's driving de Zolian has pretty much been
[9:57] Speaker 4: a case of the ugept differentials to a large extent.
[10:01] Speaker 4: There are also questions about, you know how the bog
[10:04] Speaker 4: policy normalization has been running a little bit slower, and
[10:07] Speaker 4: we've seen this morning, you know how the Dunkan survey
[10:10] Speaker 4: results have come in quite strong as well, but this
[10:12] Speaker 4: is not being reflected in terms of the pace of
[10:15] Speaker 4: policy normalization. And then the other hand, you have a
[10:19] Speaker 4: dollar strength that is going through the market.
[10:22] Speaker 5: So to a large hiderstand.
[10:23] Speaker 4: This is still driving dollion, and on the intervention side,
[10:27] Speaker 4: we have not heard a strong enough signal from officials
[10:31] Speaker 4: when it comes to intervention. So I think these are
[10:34] Speaker 4: some forces that continues to feed into the carrier trade,
[10:38] Speaker 4: that continues to feed in dollion going higher. I think
[10:41] Speaker 4: at these levels, I'll be careful about chasing upside. But
[10:46] Speaker 4: I think you know, between here and there, we're looking
[10:49] Speaker 4: at somewhere closer to forty year low in terms of
[10:51] Speaker 4: the yen and probably coming very close to the one
[10:53] Speaker 4: six four fifty one six five levels, which I think
[10:56] Speaker 4: that's quite a big focus on those levels.
[11:01] Speaker 3: The yen has also been weakening against the Roman bee.
[11:04] Speaker 3: Is there a carry trade there?
[11:09] Speaker 5: Yeah, I think to some extent.
[11:10] Speaker 4: If we look at the roman beer, right, it's been
[11:13] Speaker 4: since April May last year, it's been on the trajectory
[11:17] Speaker 4: of a very measured and managed pace of a Roman
[11:21] Speaker 4: Bee appreciation. I mean, the last two weeks there was
[11:24] Speaker 4: a little bit of a slowdown in terms of the
[11:26] Speaker 4: pace of appreciation, but this was largely to reflect the
[11:31] Speaker 4: market movements and the dollar strength.
[11:33] Speaker 5: But largely, you know, if you look at the.
[11:34] Speaker 4: Trend, it has been on an appreciation pace and then
[11:39] Speaker 4: yen on the other hand, you know, together with Korean War,
[11:42] Speaker 4: it's on the other direction. So to a large extent
[11:46] Speaker 4: you can argue that there is a little bit of
[11:50] Speaker 4: that directory directionary bias to the outside in terms of
[11:56] Speaker 4: the Roman bee to the yen.
[12:00] Speaker 6: What do you make of the dollar right this breakout
[12:03] Speaker 6: that seems to be making away here right now for
[12:06] Speaker 6: the green back? Here have we finally turned the corner
[12:09] Speaker 6: you think when it comes to the dollar?
[12:13] Speaker 5: Yeah, I think in the new term there's quite a
[12:15] Speaker 5: bit of.
[12:15] Speaker 4: A support coming in from you know what we've been
[12:17] Speaker 4: seeing about the hockeysh fabry pricing, the hockey s rhetoric
[12:20] Speaker 4: coming up from Wash, the.
[12:22] Speaker 5: Resilient US data as well.
[12:24] Speaker 4: But I mean, at this point many dollar positives are
[12:28] Speaker 4: in the price, so I would say that to a
[12:31] Speaker 4: large extent dollar would need some hawkish validation, either from data,
[12:36] Speaker 4: which we probably would see some coming up on Thursday
[12:39] Speaker 4: in the down on payros, also from Kevin Wash, who's
[12:44] Speaker 4: going to be speaking tonight in a panel together with
[12:46] Speaker 4: some of the central bankers in CenTra. So it is
[12:50] Speaker 4: important that there is you know, that sort of a
[12:53] Speaker 4: hockey shetoric coming on in order for the dollar momentum.
[12:56] Speaker 5: To carry on.
[12:57] Speaker 4: But if you know, if if we see data coming
[13:01] Speaker 4: in a little bit softer, if we see carboash doesn't
[13:04] Speaker 4: sound any hawkish or doesn't sound any more hawkish, then
[13:08] Speaker 4: with all the dollar positives that have been pricing, I
[13:11] Speaker 4: think that is a good chance we might see a
[13:13] Speaker 4: slowdown in that dollar momentum.
[13:17] Speaker 6: Okay, if things go slow down, I mean what what
[13:20] Speaker 6: EMFX certainly has been under pressure. I mean, what are
[13:22] Speaker 6: you watching in terms of Asia FX E, m F
[13:25] Speaker 6: FAX beyond.
[13:27] Speaker 5: Just the yen?
[13:28] Speaker 6: Where where could we see more of the pain felt?
[13:32] Speaker 4: Yeah, in terms of the pain I think what we've
[13:34] Speaker 4: been seeing Korean one. You know, we spoke about resident
[13:39] Speaker 4: outflows as well and not just foreign outflows. This continues
[13:44] Speaker 4: to feed into higher dollar career.
[13:47] Speaker 5: And then some of the lower.
[13:48] Speaker 4: Ding currencies are are also under a lot more pressure,
[13:52] Speaker 4: like the the the yen as well. But I think
[13:56] Speaker 4: on the flip side, with oil prices coming off a
[13:59] Speaker 4: good decline from what we've seen earlier in May, this
[14:05] Speaker 4: is a good boost to you know, a good window
[14:07] Speaker 4: for some of this all important effects to potentially get
[14:12] Speaker 4: a breeder. So some of these currencies like Idea and
[14:15] Speaker 4: India will be I think that is a good chance
[14:18] Speaker 4: that could be room for appreciation. And that's provided you know,
[14:23] Speaker 4: we don't see further dollar strength or we start to
[14:25] Speaker 4: see that hockeyship pricing slow down a little bit.
[14:31] Speaker 3: Aside from that, I mean, what are you seeing for
[14:33] Speaker 3: Taiwan dollars as well, potentially hitting some of these roadblocks.
[14:37] Speaker 5: I mean, it's.
[14:38] Speaker 3: Interesting you see the stock boom AI boom for Taiwan,
[14:41] Speaker 3: for Korea, but then the languishing in their local currencies.
[14:46] Speaker 5: Yeah, so in terms of the currency it is similar.
[14:49] Speaker 4: You know that there is a little bit of a
[14:50] Speaker 4: disconnect between the AI boom and how it's manifesting into
[14:55] Speaker 4: the exports, but it's not coming in via the flows
[14:58] Speaker 4: or via from the effects point of view, so that
[15:01] Speaker 4: this connect is also happening in Taiwan dollar. But I
[15:04] Speaker 4: would say, uh, that this connect is happening more in
[15:07] Speaker 4: Korean one, whereas for Taiwan dollar.
[15:10] Speaker 5: Uh, there is still a.
[15:11] Speaker 4: Little bit of a correlation between the Taiwan dollar and
[15:16] Speaker 4: the what's we've seen with the tai x and the
[15:19] Speaker 4: talent equity, so on a relative value play, Korean one
[15:23] Speaker 4: and yen could be a little bit more soft, but
[15:26] Speaker 4: the twan dollar I think could potentially get get a
[15:29] Speaker 4: better fit out of this.
[15:33] Speaker 3: What are you expecting in terms of central bank tightening
[15:36] Speaker 3: in the back half of the year in spite of
[15:40] Speaker 3: how oil prices are in check? Now, do the likes
[15:44] Speaker 3: of the Boka need to tighten a little just to
[15:47] Speaker 3: stem some of these outflows?
[15:51] Speaker 5: I think when it comes to.
[15:52] Speaker 4: Be Okay and the outflows, I think a lot also
[15:55] Speaker 4: depends on the inflationary expectations for them to move that
[15:59] Speaker 4: had that new to titan rates, what's going on in there.
[16:03] Speaker 4: I think that there is room for potentially tightening, but
[16:08] Speaker 4: the question is how much more can they do? So
[16:11] Speaker 4: I think a lot will come in in terms of communications,
[16:15] Speaker 4: you know, like how the central banks in the region,
[16:17] Speaker 4: in Southeast Asia, in Malaysia, in Indonesia have been taking
[16:22] Speaker 4: efforts to reassure investors. I think this is something that
[16:25] Speaker 4: we have not been seeing from some of the b
[16:28] Speaker 4: Okay authorities. I think that needs to be stepped up
[16:32] Speaker 4: a lot more.
[16:34] Speaker 6: Christopher, I gotta get your take when it comes to
[16:36] Speaker 6: precious metals. I know you guys just revised your forecast
[16:39] Speaker 6: for gold and silver to the downside was the thinking
[16:43] Speaker 6: around that here and how should I be looking at
[16:45] Speaker 6: precious metals in the second half.
[16:49] Speaker 4: Yeah, so largely, you know, from a real race point
[16:51] Speaker 4: of view, it's gone thrue quite a bit of a
[16:54] Speaker 4: shop reprising to the upside. And that's largely also in
[16:59] Speaker 4: line with we've been seeing from the hockey shuittoric out
[17:02] Speaker 4: of Wash. So and we know, you know, if you
[17:05] Speaker 4: look back in history periods where there is tightening or
[17:10] Speaker 4: periods where there is a shift from rad cards to
[17:14] Speaker 4: rate high, this kind of a window typically is quite
[17:18] Speaker 4: nasty for goal prices. So if I can just bring
[17:21] Speaker 4: it back a little bit, we recall our memories back
[17:23] Speaker 4: in Tapotentrum in twenty thirteen, I think goal prices fell
[17:27] Speaker 4: between twenty five to thirty percent that sort of thing.
[17:29] Speaker 5: So we are, you know, I wouldn't say.
[17:32] Speaker 4: We are exactly at those levels because hockey shuittoric may
[17:35] Speaker 4: not necessarily materialize into actual tightening. So I think a
[17:40] Speaker 4: lot depends on whether Wash is really fighting battling inflation
[17:44] Speaker 4: or is he you know, just building.
[17:47] Speaker 5: That fair credibility.
[17:48] Speaker 4: And after all, at the end of the day there
[17:51] Speaker 4: is no hike, then potentially we could see the environment
[17:55] Speaker 4: turn a little bit more positive for goal, but just
[17:58] Speaker 4: in the short term it's going to be.
[18:00] Speaker 1: That's Christopher Wong, executive director and FX strategist at OCBC,
[18:05] Speaker 1: speaking to Bloomberg TV, host of Aon Men and Avril Hong,
[18:09] Speaker 1: bringing you their conversation here on the Daybreak Asia Podcast.
[18:16] Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Bloomberg Daybreak
[18:19] Speaker 1: Asia Edition podcast. Each weekday, we look at the story
[18:23] Speaker 1: shaping markets, finance, and geopolitics in the Asia Pacific. You
[18:27] Speaker 1: can find us on Apple, Spotify, the Bloomberg Podcast YouTube channel,
[18:31] Speaker 1: or anywhere else you listen. Join us again tomorrow for
[18:34] Speaker 1: insight on the market moves from Hong Kong to Singapore
[18:38] Speaker 1: and Australia. I'm Doug Chrisner, and this is Bloomberg

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