**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Ann Berry** (0:27)
SpaceX, joining the NASDAQ 100 under the indexes, new fast track rules. We break down what it means for investors in famous ETFs like the QQQ.
It's merger Monday. We have the latest corporate moves sweeping Comcast, NBC, Uversant and even Tiger Woods. And SK Hynix, the South Korean chip giant is turning heads as it hits Wall Street. We take a look inside its multi, multi billion dollar listing. Welcome back from the long weekend. We're thrilled to be back in the seat. It's Monday, July 6th and it's Brew Markets Daily. I'm Ann Berry.
More market details to come. But first, it's one of the biggest capital markets stories of the year. And by the way, it's already been a big 2026 on that front. And that's because South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix launched its long-awaited US. NASDAQ listing today, set to raise roughly $43 trillion or about $28 billion through American Depository Receipts or ADRs. Well, this isn't an IPO in the traditional sense, because SK Hynix already trades in Seoul with a market cap as a Friday of about $1.1 trillion.
But by listing ADRs in the United States, the company does get to open the door to a much broader base of global investors. So just to take a moment for the technicals, ADRs are issued by US. Depository Banks to represent shares of a foreign company. So instead of navigating foreign stock markets or dealing with currency conversions, an American investor can simply purchase an ADR while the US bank buys the underlying shares in the foreign company's home market and holds those shares in custody. The sheer size of the offering is turning heads because at about $28 billion, it ranks as the second largest equity share sale on record, behind only SpaceX's recent offering and ahead of landmark deals like Saudi Aramco's 2019 IPO. And it's the latest sign that investors remain willing to write enormous checks for companies at the center of the artificial intelligence boom. SK Hynix is the world's leading supplier of high bandwidth memory chips, the specialized memory that powers AI systems built by customers that include NVIDIA. Well, SK Hynix says the proceeds will help fund new semiconductor fabrication plants in South Korea and with the purchase of advanced manufacturing equipment, including cutting edge lithography tools. Well, beyond banking the cash, the company also seems to hope that the US listing could help to close SK Hynix's valuation gap as compared with some of its American semiconductor peers. Because while SK Hynix has been recently trading at a forward PE, that's price to earnings ratio of somewhere between six and eight times, US peers like Micron have been up at multiples on the same basis, as high as 14 times strong expected forward earnings. By making the stock easier for US institutional investors and index funds to own, broader investor access could ultimately translate into a higher market valuation. Lots going on here. We're going to keep on watching. Well, later in the show, we have spin-offs and tie-ups and a rapidly changing TV landscape. We connect the dots and bring it all back to Comcast. But first, let's take a spin through some of the headlines from the day's trading session. Kicking it off with a merger Monday story out of defense giant Lockheed Martin. The company announced it will acquire naval defense group Ultramaritime in a $3.5 billion deal.
Just for context, Ultramaritime produces undersea and anti-submarine warfare tech, and it's being bought from private equity firm Advent International.
**John Creteau** (4:08)
Lockheed is one of the world's largest defense firms producing planes like the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet and Patriot air defense missiles. This deal marks a major push into undersea warfare technology. We've been covering undersea on the show lately with attacks and mines and the Strait of Hormuz, putting a spotlight on maritime security as of late. And in today's press release, Lockheed leadership said, undersea superiority belongs to those who move fastest and work together best. Shares of Lockheed, ticker LMT, are down nearly 1.5% today, but remain up over 10% since the beginning of this year.
And from underwater to outer space, SpaceX is joining the NASDAQ 100 tomorrow. That index tracks 100 of the biggest non-financial companies on the NASDAQ, which in turn is tracked by hundreds of mutual funds and ETFs. When SpaceX joins the index, those funds, like the QQQ, will automatically buy shares of the space stock, boosting liquidity and broadening the company's shareholder base almost immediately.
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