South Korea's Kospi plunges 10%, triggers trading halt as chip sell-off deepens

South Korea's Kospi fell more than 10 percent on August 6, 2026, triggering a circuit-breaker trading halt. The crash cascaded through Korea's heavily chip-weighted index as AI-related equities sold off across the US and Asia. Economist David Rosenberg pinned the rout on concerns about Chinese competition in the AI race.