TLDR
- Bitcoin held near $64,250 while most major cryptocurrencies posted modest gains on Wednesday
- Solana rose 2% to nearly $77, leading major crypto on the day, with ether up 1% to just over $1,900
- Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both fell more than 7%, dragging Korea’s Kospi down over 6%
- The Nasdaq dropped 1.3% on Tuesday as chip stocks sold off in what analysts called a positioning event
- Fed minutes are due at 2 p.m. ET, with 94 of 104 economists expecting rates to hold in September
Bitcoin stayed close to $64,250 on Wednesday, up slightly on the day and about 1% on the week. Crypto markets held steady even as global chip stocks took a sharp hit.
Solana was the best performer among major cryptocurrencies, rising 2% to nearly $77. Ether gained 1% to just over $1,900 and leads all majors over the past week at 1.5%.
XRP climbed almost 1% to just under $1, though it remains down 2% over seven days. Tron and dogecoin each added half a percent, sitting at 33 cents and 7 cents respectively.
Not all cryptos were in the green. BNB slipped slightly to just above $600 and is down 2% on the week. Hyperliquid’s HYPE fell over 1% to just over $58, though it still leads all major tokens over seven days with a 7% gain.
Chip Stocks Take a Major Hit
Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both dropped more than 7% in Seoul on Wednesday. The moves sent Korea’s Kospi index down over 6% and dragged the MSCI Asia Pacific index down 2%.
An Asian semiconductor gauge fell more than 3%. That followed a 5% slide in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index on Tuesday, its worst session since late July.
In the U.S., the Nasdaq fell 1.3% on Tuesday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 116 points, or 0.2%.
Chip-linked names pulled the broader indexes lower. Caterpillar and Goldman Sachs, both seen as beneficiaries of AI investment activity, were among the bigger drags on the Dow.
Mizuho analyst Daniel O’Regan said thin summer liquidity likely made the moves worse than the underlying news would suggest. He described the selloff as a positioning event rather than a real shift in the AI story.
Bond Yields and the Fed in Focus
A global bond selloff pushed 30-year U.S. Treasury yields to their highest level since 2007. Ten-year yields also rose close to levels last seen in early 2025, raising borrowing costs for companies spending on AI infrastructure.
By Wednesday, markets steadied a bit. The 10-year yield eased about a basis point to 4.69%. The 30-year yield in the U.S. dropped to 5.28% on Tuesday, snapping a two-day run of higher yields.
Gold rose as much as 0.6% to above $4,360 an ounce after falling nearly 2% the previous day.
Federal Reserve minutes from the July meeting are due at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday. A Reuters survey found 94 out of 104 economists expect rates to stay at 3.50% to 3.75% in September. Markets put the odds of no change at around 68%.
Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to speak at the Jackson Hole symposium next week.
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