TSMC posts a record US$23.5 billion profit — yet Asian tech hardware gets crushed. Memory chips plunge 11 per cent. Credit default swaps for AI investors like SoftBank and CoreWeave widen to record highs. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz stays in limbo, oil markets juggle ceasefires and tanker attacks, and the Kospi suffers its sharpest drop in months. Are we watching the moment debt-fueled AI expansion hits a wall? Oriano Lizza from CMC Markets joins Howie Lim to find out in Market Focus Weekly.

Highlights:

01:52 TSMC's record profit vs. Asia's tech wreck

02:48 CXMT Rising; chip gap closing for Samsung and SK Hynix

03:58 Oil, Hormuz, and the geopolitical seesaw

06:20 Credit risk widens and the debt wall

09:18 Asia's higher-for-longer survival guide

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Send us your questions, thoughts, story ideas, and feedback to btpodcasts@sph.com.sg.

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Written and hosted by: Howie Lim (howielim@sph.com.sg)

With Oriano Lizza, sales trader, CMC Markets

Edited by: Howie Lim & Claressa Monteiro

Produced by: Howie Lim & Chai Pei Chieh

A podcast by BT Podcasts, The Business Times, SPH Media

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