South Korean chip stocks advanced even as Wall Street's three major indexes fell amid Middle East tensions, rising oil prices and higher bond yields. Samsung Electronics rose 0.37%, SK hynix gained 1.12% and Samsung Electro-Mechanics advanced 1.68% in pre-market trading, while all 10 of the most valuable listed companies moved higher, according to Nextrade data on the 9th. The KOSPI is testing whether it can regain 7,000 after closing the previous day down 0.58% at 6,954.52, despite briefly nearing 7,200. Retail investors sold a net 9.8 trillion won ($7.3 billion) over the past two trading sessions, while foreign investors bought a net 1.3 trillion won ($970 million) between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8. U.S. equities weakened as oil-supply concerns intensified, with West Texas Intermediate rising 1.69% to $93.03 a barrel and Brent gaining 0.95% to $97.92. The 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.805% ahead of the U.S. consumer price index for August, due on the 11th. Chip performance remained mixed: the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 1.30%, Intel jumped 9.10%, AMD gained 5.90%, Broadcom rose 3.00%, while Nvidia and Micron fell. SK hynix's American depositary receipts extended their rally by 4.83%, with analysts citing reports that memory-chip inventories at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix had fallen below 10 days. Analysts say Korean equities face near-term volatility but retain support from memory-chip strength, investor-flow changes, currency levels and sustained artificial-intelligence earnings momentum.