NEW YORK, June 23, 2026, 09:03 EDT
- Nasdaq 100 futures dropped almost 3% before the open, with traders pulling back from AI-related tech names.
- SpaceX has shed over $600 billion in market value across the last three sessions, according to Reuters.
- KOSPI in South Korea fell 9.99% after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped sharply.
Nasdaq 100 was set to lose over $1 trillion in market value Tuesday, with tech stock selling moving from megacaps into chip and memory names, tightening the pressure ahead of the New York open. SpaceX shares slipped too, falling below the $2 trillion mark for the first time since its U.S. debut, Reuters said.
Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 891.75 points, or 2.91%, at 06:42 a.m. ET, and S&P 500 futures lost 1.5%, Reuters reported Reuters. The market’s leading 2026 trade — AI-related growth stocks — is under pressure from two sides: more concern about AI spending returns and the outlook for higher U.S. rates.
Selling spread past big internet names early today. Shares of Micron, SanDisk, and Western Digital took heavy losses in premarket trade. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices fell too, dragging pressure through semis, a group that had been a driver for record index levels.
South Korea’s market sent a clear warning to investors. The KOSPI dropped 9.99% to end at 8,203.84, the biggest fall in over three months. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each fell more than 12%, enough to trigger a 20-minute halt across the market. Reuters reported the two chipmakers now account for over half of the market’s value.
SpaceX stayed under pressure. According to Reuters, shares dropped 3.6% to $149.10 in premarket deals. That put them roughly 9% higher than the $135 IPO price, after the stock wiped out over $600 billion in value over three sessions.
Debt worries are getting attention again. Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at Swissquote Bank, said SpaceX’s new bond sale brought back old fears that tech giants could be taking on too much debt to pay for AI infrastructure—data centers, chips, and power for their AI products.
Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, told Reuters the drop looked like a “sentiment-driven correction,” not an end to the AI earnings trade. She said it points to how much market leadership now relies on a small set of growth names. Reuters
Six out of seven Magnificent Seven names fell in early moves, Reuters reported. Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia and Apple all traded down before the bell, with those losses on track to wipe out $345 billion in market value for the group if they stuck.
Rate bets piled on more pain. Traders are now looking for the Federal Reserve to hike rates by 50 basis points by December, Reuters said, citing CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Just two weeks ago, markets were only pricing in one quarter-point move.
The danger is the drop could worsen as it goes. Alexander Redman, chief equity strategist at CLSA, said “volatility has blown out” in South Korea. He cited heavy retail trading and big moves in leveraged single-stock exchange-traded funds, which use debt or derivatives to boost the daily swing of one stock. Reuters
Softer inflation, falling Treasury yields or a solid Micron print on Wednesday might calm things down. But at the moment, investors are facing a tougher question than last week: can the AI boom still justify all the spending, high valuations and debt?
