Kospi Tries for 7,000 Again as US Earnings Season Comes Into Focus

The Kospi is expected to take its direction this week, from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16, from third-quarter earnings by US companies and foreign investor flows. Local brokerages say the benchmark could try to establish itself above 7,000 if strong results from US AI and semiconductor companies spur foreign buying of South Korean chip stocks.

Goldman Sachs estimates third-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies rose 27% from a year earlier, while revenue increased 12%, the Financial Times reported on Oct. 11. “This would mark a third straight quarter of earnings growth above 25%,” said Manish Kabra, Societe Generale’s US equity strategist, describing it as an unprecedented pattern outside the recovery that followed the global financial crisis.

Corporate guidance has also been positive. FactSet expects profit growth across all 11 sectors in the S&P 500. A record 72 companies issued upbeat third-quarter guidance, while the number providing negative outlooks fell to the lowest level in five years. Ben Snider, head of US equity strategy at Goldman Sachs, said recent macroeconomic data and signs of the AI investment boom do not point to an economic slowdown.

Local brokerages are also focused on memory demand continuing to outstrip supply. Micron said it has already allocated more than 75% of its 2027 output to customers, and that some long-term supply agreements run through 2031. Demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and DRAM is rising as AI data centers expand, while increasing supply will take time.

Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Yuanta Securities, said Micron posted results and next-quarter guidance that topped market expectations. He added that memory supply and demand could become tighter in 2027 and 2028 than they are this year. Strength in GPU rental rates and spot memory prices, along with improving semiconductor exports, adds to the view that AI infrastructure investment is supporting the industry. Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, also highlighted Marvell Technology’s decision to raise its fiscal 2028 revenue target to $20 billion.

Against that backdrop, Yuanta Securities said investors need to maintain a semiconductor-focused strategy. Lee said funds that had been concentrated in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in the first half are now spreading to semiconductor materials, parts and equipment makers, as well as IT hardware companies.

Whether stocks can extend their gains will depend on whether earnings expectations are backed by actual buying. One brokerage executive cited profit-taking after expectations had already been priced in, along with a sharp rise in US interest rates, as reasons Samsung Electronics shares fell despite record earnings. The executive said that if this week’s US earnings season confirms profit growth at AI-related companies, foreign funds could return to South Korean chip stocks and help the Kospi establish itself above 7,000.