AI Chip Stocks, SK Hynix & the Next Big ETF Opportunity

New York morning trade, we are looking at tech pullback following severe weakness in South Korean chip makers.

Sing a record drop in Seo today following its blockbuster US debut of ADRs on Friday.

Now the company just pulled off the largest foreign public listing in the US market history, raising a staggering $26.5 billion and it's Nasdaq debut as its valuation crossed the $1 trillion mark.

He and SpaceX completing offerings at similar price levels and also opening on Fridays here in the US and see similar first moves also leverage ETS tracking both names not too far behind after launching a two time daily SpaceX Fund direction is back with a 2 times daily as He ETF.

Now this fund launches on Wednesday, July 15 under symbol SKHL and will seek daily investment returns.

Of 200% of the daily performance of the South Korean chip makers ADR.

Joining me live here at the New York Stock Exchange this morning is the little global ETF strategist for direction. great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

Excited to be here.

Well, first and foremost, let's talk about the market debut of SK Heine on the Nasdaq.

So what did you make of that reception?

Well, a couple of things.

One, I think you saw the trade broadening out, right, and that's what you.

Continue to here in the marketplace right now, but I think you saw institutional capital willing to underwrite the opportunity of SK Hein.

The additional part that I have mentioned is you saw a significant level of demand from the investor market because it hadn't been able to actually access the stock directly.

So the ADR presents that opportunity for retail investors as well as institutional capital here in the United States to actually activate that trade.

Yes, and speaking of access, Bilal, can you expand on this?

So for viewers out there who are looking at this price action of what's happening in the South Korean markets as opposed to here in the US, what would you say to them right now?

Can you explain it to the layperson?

Yes, I would say that AI has moved to the main stage, right?

So last year, I think the conversation was really about Nvidia and what we were seeing around chips.

Today you see memory and I would say the other.

Parts of the AI stack really come to the forefront.

So what are people talking about?

They're talking about memory.

They're talking about capacity.

They're talking about equipment.

They're talking about packaging, and they're going to be talking about power.

So what you saw is that that trade not only broadened out, but the market receptivity has actually been embracing that conversation.

So what the, I would say the viewers should be listening to is what else in the AI stack has a potential bottleneck.

From a production perspective when it comes to the infrastructure that's needed for the AI revolution that we're seeing and Bilal, we've been seeing plenty of volatility when it comes to the AI trade, so a lot to keep our eyes on.

But for the viewers who want to hear more about this upcoming launch of SKHL, tell us a little bit more about this.

Yes, so the direction daily SK Heine Bull 2X ETF is going to be.

Available July 15th, and the reason that that is important is that it will allow the investor to actually trade that day, so not until then.

But what we're doing is we're presenting an opportunity for 200% exposure to the underlying ADR that's listed on the NASDAQ, but that's before fees and expenses.

Now the focus of the fund will allow investors to participate in that ETF.

And to express their trade rationale one way or another, that is not our call.

Our focus is to build tools for the trader to be able to exercise that investment thesis where they have the most conviction.

And Bilal, while I have you here, you have spent decades in the ETF space, so you have seen the maturity of the space as well as the launch of new products.

So as we head into the second half of 2026, we all know that there's a lot coming on the horizon.

So what are you paying attention to and what do you think is key for investors out there to keep in mind?

Well, one, I think the conversation of a rotation in the equity markets is very valid and fair, and you actually see that.

You've seen that across the semis space, right?

Obviously people know direction for our focus in semis, but they also know us for our single stock leverage ETFs.

And what I point to is Micron as a Great story and an example of what we saw a couple of weeks ago where the stock actually did perform really, really well after earnings, but then you've seen somewhat of a selloff and what I think you've seen is just a rotation in that trade.

I don't necessarily see a breakdown in the trade.

I think what we see is a continued opportunity for capital to say, hey, what else is important in the ecosystem when it comes to the ETF?

I think the broadening of individual single stock issuance actually presents an interesting. for traders to have higher conviction precision trades and that's what the ETF rapper will present for investors in the future.

So again, I think we're really excited about this launch on the 15th with SK Heine but in addition to that, I think you'll continue to see traders and investors look for opportunities to deploy capital and it's really interesting because when we do look at those individual names the growth in terms of stock price in terms of.

Percentage growth year to date versus PE ratios.

There's a lot to digest when it comes to that data.

But when it comes to demand for funds, what are you seeing right now?

Well, when it comes to ETFs, I mean, look, you see record flows right to start the year.

So the first half of the year, over 1 trillion.5 dollars.

I mean that speaks volumes for itself.

But I think what the ETF presents for the investor again, precision in the portfolio is where the opportunity comes from.

I also think it actually presents a Opportunity to find unloved sectors in the market, right?

So when you see a rotation into healthcare or into financials like you've seen over the last couple of weeks, that's an opportunity for the investor to diversify the portfolio and then to build in where they actually identify value, especially where you actually have PE multiple stretched on the tech side.

Yes, well, I think diversification is the key word here, so we'll keep an eye on the launch ball.

Thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.