CNBC Daily Open: Chipping away at the AI boom

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London.

Another day, another circuit breaker triggered.

The Nasdaq-South Korea feedback loop continues to link the AI trade from one side of the globe to the other, and today it’s to the downside.

Read on!

Tuesday’s trading in Asia saw Samsung and SK Hynix plunge, driving a 10% drop on South Korea’s Kospi. The index has now fallen around 45% from its June highs.

Circuit breakers were triggered once again, and contagion across the region saw steep declines for the Nikkei, led by the big tech names.

The catalyst? Hard to pinpoint.

During Monday’s session on Wall Street, Nvidia came under selling pressure after CNBC confirmed the group is in talks with OpenAI to provide a $250 billion backstop to fund its AI infrastructure plans.

The story sent Nvidia shares down over 5%, pushing its market cap just below $4.8 trillion. This allowed Apple to regain its crown as the world’s most valuable company at $4.95 trillion.

French luxury giant LVMH has reported solid demand from U.S. consumers, even as sales and spending slowed in Europe and China. The owner of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Moët Chandon champagne saw sales rise 3% in the second quarter.

Watches and jewellery were the fastest-growing segment, with Bernstein’s luxury analyst Luca Solca saying “jewelry — in the eyes of middle-class consumers — looks better value,” on CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition.”

SpaceX has now lost the equivalent of a full Tesla in market capitalization

What’s one trillion between a trillionaire and his biggest fans?

SpaceX has now erased more than $1.2 trillion in market cap since its high price of $225.64 in June – almost exactly the value of Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla, whose shares just fell to near one-year lows. On Monday, SpaceX fell for the 13th session out of the last 16, shedding more than 1% to end at $113.50.

While some of the options flows are getting more balanced between bulls and bears, the biggest single SpaceX trades of the day on Monday were neutral to bullish. Small speculators continue to buy fat-chance calls that need the crashing stock to quickly turn around and double.

— Oliver Renick