The Jobs Paradox: $1.3 Trillion Vanishes from Wall Street, Dollar Strengthens

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an 'AI-based personalized news recommendation and summary service' developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six customized news items by reader type.

1. The Jobs Paradox: $1.3 Trillion Vanishes from Wall Street, Bonds Fall and Dollar Strengthens

- Key Summary: When May nonfarm payrolls rose by 172,000, more than double the market forecast, the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate hike within the year surged sharply. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 10.26%, marking its largest drop since March 2020, with $1.3 trillion (about 2,000 trillion won) in market capitalization vanishing in a single day. The 30-year Treasury yield broke through 5.0% and the dollar index recovered the 100 line for the first time in two months at 100.07, unfolding a broad asset correction phase in which bonds, stocks, gold, and cryptocurrencies all declined together. With the PCE price index hitting 3.8% year-on-year as of April, the highest since May 2023, the addition of strong employment is lending weight to the analysis that the Fed's policy path could turn more hawkish than the market expects.

2. SpaceX Draws Double in Early Orders, But S&P 500 Inclusion May Take Two Years

- Key Summary: SpaceX's institutional book-building drew about $150 billion, double its target of $75 billion, with the offering price projected at around $135 per share. The subscription closes on the 10th and listing is scheduled for the 12th. With the S&P Dow Jones Indices committee deciding to maintain its 'profitable company' requirement, S&P 500 inclusion is expected to be delayed to after 2028, following the achievement of profitability in 2027 according to Evercore ISI's forecast. By contrast, Nasdaq shortened its inclusion waiting period from three months to 15 trading days, making Nasdaq 100 inclusion at the end of this month all but certain. The resulting forced passive fund buying is expected to reach more than $14 billion according to Bloomberg estimates. Anthropic and OpenAI are also pursuing IPOs at valuations of more than $1 trillion within the year, but the dominant view is that with the timing of their turn to profitability unclear due to expanding computing costs, their path to S&P 500 inclusion could be even longer than SpaceX's.

3. Jensen Huang: "Everything from Wafers to Cable Connectors Is in Short Supply"

- Key Summary: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, during a visit to Korea, said "the entire industry supply chain, from wafers to silicon photonics and cable connectors, is in a state of shortage," reaffirming that strong demand for AI infrastructure will continue for years. Huang predicted, "In the second half of this year we will achieve much greater growth than in the first half, and we will continue very substantial growth through next year," signaling that demand for Korean-made memory such as HBM and LPDDR will continue to expand. He introduced a new product lineup including the next-generation AI accelerator 'Vera Rubin,' the Vera CPU, and the AI edge supercomputer 'Jetson Thor,' which observers say also left open the possibility of expanded cooperation with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

4. '26 Trillion Won' Czech Nuclear Plant Hurdle Removed: EU Says "Team Korea Did Not Violate Subsidy Rules"

- Key Summary: The European Commission (EC) officially notified that it would not launch an in-depth investigation into the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power-led Team Korea's Dukovany nuclear plant project in the Czech Republic (about 26 trillion won) over a violation of EU foreign subsidy rules. The conclusion comes about one year and four months after Électricité de France (EDF), which lost the competition, raised an objection, with the EC accepting Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power's argument that it did not receive subsidies and that the bid was launched before the rules took effect. Analysts say this decision represents the EU directly confirming Team Korea's legal and institutional suitability in the European nuclear market, and will work to its advantage in future order processes.

5. They Said It Would End in 4 Weeks, But the War Reaches Day 100: Trump Says "It Will Take Some Time"

- Key Summary: The war between the US and Israel against Iran reached its 100th day, but core objectives such as Iranian regime change and the destruction of nuclear weapons have not been achieved, and President Trump also acknowledged that "it will take time to reach an agreement." Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz caused vessel traffic to plunge from around 100 ships to a daily average of three, and WTI crude prices surged 37% from $67.02 before the war to $90.54, with US crude inventories falling to 1.57 billion barrels, the lowest level in some 20 years. With energy infrastructure restoration costs estimated to reach up to $58 billion, the assessment is that geopolitical uncertainty continues amid stalled negotiations over the handling of 37 trillion won in frozen Iranian assets and the abandonment of highly enriched uranium.

6. OpenAI: "The Chatbot Era Is Over"—A Bold Bet on a 'Super App' Transformation

- Key Summary: OpenAI has decided to completely overhaul ChatGPT into a super app combining it with the AI coding agent Codex, declaring a shift from a personal chatbot model that is difficult to monetize to an enterprise-customer-centered strategy. Currently, 2 million businesses account for about 40% of revenue, and OpenAI aims to raise this share to 50% by year-end. As competition intensifies with Anthropic's coding agent Claude, the analysis is that both companies, ahead of their IPOs this fall, are converging on a strategy focused on monetizing enterprise customers.