Big Tech Earnings Whiplash, KOSPI Wipeout, and SpaceX Slide Dominate Markets

The latest episode of DH Unplugged, a weekly investing and markets podcast hosted by money manager Andrew Horowitz and columnist John C. Dvorak, arrives amid a rollercoaster week for global markets. The episode, titled “Rollercoaster Ride,” covers a tape whipsawing on Big Tech earnings, a collapsing Korean stock market, and a SpaceX unwind that has become the talk of Wall Street. Horowitz, recovering from meniscus surgery, walks listeners through Dow swings of 1,000 points up and 700 points down, oil reacting to geopolitical shifts, and a market where Palantir jumped 26% while AMD dropped 8% after hours.

The hosts quickly move through a packed docket, starting with earnings from Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. Amazon crossed the $3 trillion mark, while Apple fell 7% on memory chip cost warnings. Microsoft and Amazon posted blowout results, but Apple’s stumble highlights supply chain pressures that could ripple through the tech sector. The divergence in performance underscores the fragility of even the largest companies amid rising costs.

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the KOSPI meltdown in South Korea. The index crashed 40%, wiping out 350,000 Korean retail accounts. The hosts point to single stock leveraged ETFs as a key culprit, amplifying losses for retail investors. This event serves as a stark reminder of the risks inherent in leveraged products, especially in volatile markets. The ripple effects could extend beyond Korea, as global investors reassess exposure to emerging markets and leveraged instruments.

SpaceX’s post-IPO slide also dominates the conversation. The stock fell from $135 to $108, handing short sellers $15.5 billion. Horowitz calls the move a “rug pull,” citing insider selling, expired lockups, and the absence of syndicate support from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. The company also missed Starlink subscriber targets and priced $40 billion in new debt toward junk status. This raises questions about the sustainability of high-flying tech IPOs and the risks for retail investors who buy into hype without adequate support.

The episode also touches on AI “hackathon” narratives from OpenAI and Anthropic, and Google’s new selfie-based authentication push. Dvorak remains skeptical of the AI safety marketing cycle, framing the escalating “capture the flag” breakout stories as a regulatory moat play. “Their large marketing campaign goes around the idea that their AI is going to kill us all. So buy now, don't miss out on having the evil machine work for you,” he tells Horowitz, noting OpenAI has been running the same playbook since GPT-2. Horowitz counters that either interpretation—deliberate manipulation or genuine incompetence—is unsettling for investors trying to price the sector.

Other threads include Reddit’s 20% plunge on weak AI licensing demand and a Meta miss tied to its Scale AI acquisition. The hosts also dig into housing, where Miami now shows roughly 140 sellers for every 100 buyers, and compare stuck listing prices to unsold Beanie Babies on eBay. Additional topics include TSMC’s additional $100 billion Arizona investment, Delta’s confidence in sticky higher fares, a 1.6 million dozen egg salmonella recall, cheap lamb and shrimp at the grocery store, PCE inflation stuck at 3.3% core, and a fresh 50% Trump tariff on Canadian goods.

For investors, the episode underscores the importance of diversification and caution in a market driven by AI hype, geopolitical tensions, and leveraged speculation. The KOSPI wipeout and SpaceX slide serve as cautionary tales, while the mixed earnings from Big Tech highlight the unevenness of the recovery. As always, DH Unplugged provides a skeptical, unrehearsed perspective on the forces shaping the economy and markets. Episode 812 is available now wherever podcasts are heard.