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Nasdaq futures rise after Wall Street rebound; Kospi soars 13%, triggers trading curbs
**Nasdaq futures edged higher** in overnight trading Thursday as a sharp Wall Street rebound, fueled by upbeat Amazon earnings and a surge in AI-linked chip stocks, restored investor confidence after a steep midweek selloff. The core news point: Amazon’s better-than-expected second-quarter revenue, driven by strong cloud-computing growth, reinforced optimism in artificial intelligence spending, while Apple’s fiscal third-quarter revenue topped forecasts on a 22% iPhone sales jump—though a service revenue shortfall sent its stock down 6% after hours. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5%, Dow futures rose 0.2%, and S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%. In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi surged over 13% after chip giants SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics triggered a trading halt, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped more than 3%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) climbed over 8% in Thursday’s regular session, led by Microsoft’s 16% jump after stronger-than-expected Azure cloud growth. The rally followed Wednesday’s brutal session, when the Dow plunged more than 1,100 points—its worst one-day drop since April 2025—after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, stoking fears it is falling behind on inflation. Those worries pushed the 30-year Treasury yield above 5.2%, near its highest since 2007. “Investors are recalibrating expectations for Fed rate cuts, reducing excess liquidity that fueled speculative markets,” said Richard Bernstein of Janus Henderson Investors. “Market leadership is expanding beyond the ‘Magnificent 7’ as fundamentals improve.” Despite the week’s volatility, major averages remained on track for gains: the Dow up ~0.5%, S&P 500 ~0.4%, and Nasdaq ~0.6% heading into Friday.