00:02You're listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
00:42Here's why global investors are paying attention to Korea today.
00:45Rate and equity markets are moving together instead of in opposite directions,
00:49a pattern last seen briefly in 2023 before stocks corrected sharply.
00:54The driver this time is AI-linked earnings optimism,
00:57large enough to outweigh the usual drag from higher discount rates.
01:01Korea's own story is layered on top.
01:03A semiconductor-heavy Kospi taking a breather
01:07while Kostak's smaller chip equipment and materials names catch a delayed re-rating.
01:12Here's what the numbers show.
01:13The 10-year Treasury traded as high as 5.347% intraday on October 5th,
01:19the steepest level since 2002.
01:22The one fell for a third session to $1,343.6 per dollar,
01:26pressured by a dollar index near 102 and dollar yen around 158.
01:32NVIDIA's new $150 billion buyback authorization lifts its total headroom to $235 billion through January 2028,
01:42and executing it on schedule means buying shares more than twice as fast as in the first half of this
01:48year.
01:49Korea's Kostak chip equipment basket is leading the rebound.
01:52Names like SFA Semiconductor are up over 100% since September 1st,
01:57as HBM-driven packaging demand spreads beyond Kospi's large-cap chip makers.
02:03Foreign and institutional investors each bought more than $100 billion won of Kostak's shares on October 6th alone,
02:10reversing September's outflow.
02:12France's 10-year bond yield climbed toward 5% this week
02:16as student protests over education funding spread nationwide with more than 5,000 arrests reported,
02:22a reminder that fiscal stress premiums are rising in developed markets too, not just emerging ones.
02:28So what does this mean for global investors in Korea?
02:31Earlier, we said the 10-year Treasury hit its highest level since 2002 while risk appetite held.
02:37Here's what that actually means for you.
02:39Korea's rate equity decoupling keeps working only as long as chip-driven earnings surprises arrive on schedule,
02:45so the Semiconductor print calendar now matters as much as the Fed calendar for your Korea allocation.
02:51Watch three things.
02:52Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix earnings due in late October,
02:56whether foreign Kostak buying extends past this week's pace,
03:00and whether the 10-year Treasury holds above 5.3% into November.
03:04That's today's AI Prism, Global Investors.
03:08This episode was produced with AI assistance based on Seoul Economic Daily reporting
03:12and reviewed by a human editor.
03:15AI Prism is a WANIFRA award-winning series.
03:18We'll be back tomorrow.
03:19You've been listening to AI Prism from Seoul Economic Daily.
