SMIC announced that second-quarter revenue was 1.9 billion US dollars, up 8.6% month-on-month, up 21.8% year on year, and the market estimated 1.84 billion US dollars; net profit for the second quarter was 0.1646 billion US dollars, down 59% year on year, and the market estimated 76.3 million US dollars. According to SMIC, the monthly production capacity increased from about 814,500 8-inch wafers in the first quarter of 2024 to about the equivalent of 837,000 8-inch wafers in the second quarter of 2024. SMIC issued guidance for the third quarter of 2024. The expected IFRS guidelines are: revenue for the third quarter of 2024 is expected to increase 13% to 15% month-on-month, and gross margin is in the range of 18% to 20%. The Q2 gross margin was 13.9%, down 6.4 percentage points from 20.3% in the same period last year, and is expected to be 11.3%.

South Korea’s role as major chip producer means country is critically important to global economy • Samsung produces 41% of the world’s DRAM chips and 33% of NAND memory chips • Many of world's biggest firms, including Apple, Qualcomm or Deutsche Telekom, depend on Samsung

Robinhood Reports Second Quarter 2024 Results Record Revenues of $682 million, up 40% year-over-year Record GAAP Diluted EPS of $0.21, up $0.18 year-over-year Record Net Deposits of $13.2 billion, an annualized growth rate of 41%

Why did global markets tank the last few days?
It’s all about the Yen carry trade.
In short:
1. Asset management firms were borrowing Japanese yen for super cheap and investing the borrowed money in money markets or global stocks.
2. Japanese central bank rates have remained low for almost 20 years, and even negative for much of the last 10. So basically you borrow money for free, invest it for a 5%+ profit elsewhere and pocket the difference. Amazing
3. But last ...