Welcome to Markets Desk, here's what's moving markets right now.
South Korea's equity market is flashing serious stress signals after foreign investors offloaded thirteen point two billion dollars in local stocks last week, pushing volatility to near-record levels. That kind of concentrated selling in a single week reflects deep uncertainty around trade exposure and regional risk appetite, and it's rattling the won alongside the broader index.
Feeding that regional anxiety, China's April economic data came in soft across the board. Retail sales growth slowed to its weakest pace since two thousand twenty two, while industrial output and fixed investment both missed forecasts. Beijing's post-tariff resilience narrative is taking a hit, and markets are now watching closely for any policy response from the People's Bank or the central government.
Pulling back to the broader AI trade, infrastructure names continue to outperform even as the hyperscalers grab the headlines. The companies supplying the picks and shovels of this buildout, think semiconductors, power management, and networking, have more than doubled this year in several cases, and analysts argue the demand runway still has considerable length ahead of it.
That's the tape. Markets Desk, signing off the floor.
