According to a report by South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo on August 11, Kiwoom Securities in South Korea simultaneously lowered its target stock prices for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Recently, concerns have intensified that the general-purpose memory chip industry has peaked, leading more and more securities firms to lower their target stock price expectations for the two leading South Korean companies, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

According to South Korean financial investment industry sources on the 11th, Kiwoom Securities lowered its target price for Samsung Electronics from 390,000 won to 350,000 won the previous day, and its target price for SK Hynix from 2.2 million won to 2.1 million won, but maintained a "buy" rating for both stocks.

The report points out that the trend of lowering target prices in the South Korean securities industry began to emerge at the end of last month. At the end of last month, with the controversy over whether the semiconductor industry had peaked and the release of SK Hynix's second-quarter financial report, major securities firms such as Mirae Asset Securities, Shinhan Investment & Securities, and Samsung Securities successively lowered the target prices of two stocks by about 30%.

According to BlockBeats, TMT Breakout stated in its latest report on August 11th that the core change in the current US tech stock market is the repricing within AI trading. The Nasdaq 100 ETF fell slightly by about 30 basis points that day, with trading volume continuing to slow. Although the market has entered the latter half of earnings season, tech stocks have not cooled down in tandem. Funds are beginning to shift from the previously crowded AI semiconductor chain to software, internet, and cloud service-related stocks that are easier to validate after earnings reports.

TMT Breakout believes investors are rediscovering companies with "accelerating earnings, improved narratives, and declining valuations." Software stocks like PLTR, TWLO, and TEAM continued to see buying interest after their earnings reports, indicating the market's willingness to repric for growth certainty. In contrast, the AI semiconductor sector has underperformed; even with decent earnings or guidance from some companies, their share prices have struggled to attract sustained new capital.

TMTB explains that after the initial crowded surge in AI semiconductor trading, investors have become more discerning about short-term gains and the fulfillment of narratives. While the memory sector, represented by Micron, still benefits from supply and demand tensions, and SanDisk has gained attention due to improved NAND profitability visibility, the overall semiconductor sector can no longer rely solely on the phrase "strong AI demand" to drive a broad-based rally. Funds will be more inclined to seek targets outside the AI chain that can still benefit from enterprise IT spending and cloud computing expansion.

The macroeconomic environment also exacerbated this rotation. TMTB noted that before the CPI release, oil prices rose by about 5%, and US Treasury yields climbed by 4 to 6 basis points, making the market more sensitive to interest rates and inflation. Against this backdrop, high-valuation, crowded momentum trades came under pressure, while companies that could provide evidence of cash flow, orders, or demand after their earnings reports were more likely to attract continued funding.