Korea's Memory Rout Hits Micron Again, and SPX Opens 13 Over the 7,790 Flip

Memory chips broke in Seoul overnight. The Kospi lost more than 5%, its worst day since July, after China's CXMT claimed a breakthrough and said server DDR5 modules ship by year-end, with SK Hynix down 10% and Samsung 7.4%. Micron is down again premarket after losing 3.9% Monday, and Nasdaq futures are off more than half a percent. The banks are pulling the other way. Goldman earned $17.01 a share against $13.08 expected and is up about 3%, JPMorgan missed for once but raised its interest income guide, and Wells Fargo is lower on a revenue miss. SPX closed flat Monday at 7,807.24. Premarket 7,803.

That's a fourth reason in a week to sell the same stocks. First it was debt, SpaceX's $40 billion and the Broadcom financing for OpenAI's chip, then OpenAI's run rate coming in about $20 billion under what had been reported, and now it's competition in memory. The chip index is down about 6% over three sessions and SPX is up 5 points over the same three, because the Dow and the banks keep taking the weight, and Monday was the cleanest version with the Dow up 0.4% and the Nasdaq down 0.4%. That handoff has to get through CPI tomorrow, the last print before the Oct. 27-28 Fed meeting. The 10-year opened its week 5 basis points lower at 5.19%, which helps.

Premarket is 13 over the flip at 7,790 and 22 under the call wall at 7,825. Monday's whole session lived between those two, a 7,822 high and a 7,797 low. Above the wall, 7,830 to 7,850 carries about 1.25 times its gamma, so I'd expect a break over 7,825 to get pulled up to 7,850, where it thins. The weak spot is the flip. The put wall sits right on it, so there's no shelf under 7,790, just a run of negatives down to 7,730 where the wall is barely bigger than the 7,750 node, and a loss of 7,790 should travel.

The lean is long from 7,790, the flip and put wall with prior demand at 7,793, for 7,806 and then the wall at 7,825, with nothing bought at the open 22 under it. Positive gamma and a CPI print tomorrow argue for another session inside 7,790 to 7,825. A hold over 7,825 opens 7,838 and 7,850. There is no long case under 7,779, Friday's low.