News
Further contraction expected if trade conflict intensifies: BOK
2025/02/04 10:00
Bank of Korea forecasts South Korea's real GDP growth rate this year could fall to the mid-one percent range if international trade conflicts continue to heat up. According to the central bank on Tuesday, the country's real GDP growth could fall by an additional point-two percentage points, from its previous outlook of one-point-nine percent, if global trade conflicts intensify. This means that the real growth rate for this year could be one-point-seven percent. The BOK said strengthening U.S. protectionist policy and response measures from countries like China could result in a rapid contraction in international trade.
Wall Street settles, bitcoin rebounds past US$ 100,000 on news of Trump's tariff pause
2025/02/04 10:00
And following Trump's change of mind, markets in the U.S. recovered some losses. Wall Street opened on Monday with massive sell-offs, before mostly recovering by the end of the trading session. Lee Seung-jae has more. On the first day of Wall Street trading since U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of 25 percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 percent tariff on China, major indexes saw major sell-offs. However,.. major sell-offs slowed as Trump announced that he would put a hold on the 25 percent tariff on Mexico and Canada, in order for negotiations to take place. By the end of Monday's trading, the S&P 500 fell just zero-point-eight percent, while the Dow lost 122 points, or zero-point-3 percent. The tech heavy Nasdaq fell one-point-two percent. Still,.. major tech and auto shares fell on the day, due to concerns that an intensified trade conflict due to Trump's tariffs and the response from affected countries could hamper sales. America's largest carmaker General Motors fell as much as 7 percent during premarket trading Monday, before recovering to trade over three percent lower from its previous trading session. Stellantis N.V. also fell nearly four percent by the end of Monday's session. Apple, which relies heavily on Chinese labor for its production,.. also saw its share fall over three percent. However, bitcoin which fell over the week, rebounded to above 100 thousand U.S. dollars again. According to U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase as of 8 AM Korea Standard Time, the price of Bitcoin stood at over 101 thousand seven hundred U.S. dollars. Concerns still remain for South Korea's currency market, as the greenback continues to strengthen against the won amid Trump's protectionist policies. According to the Seoul Money Brokerage as of 2 AM Tuesday morning, the won fell 9-point-3 won against the U.S. dollar, to close at 1-thousand-462 won. Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
STOCK
2025/02/03 20:00
2025. 2. 3. KOREAN STOCK MARKET KOSPI : 2,453.95 ▼63.42 -2.52% KOSDAQ : 703.80 ▼24.49 -3.36% KOSPI200 : 324.55 ▼8.81 -2.64% ASIAN STOCK MARKET NIKKEI225 : 38,520.09 ▼1,052.40 -2.66% HANG SENG : 20,217.26 ▼7.85 -0.04% SHANGHAI : CLOSED WALL STREET (JANUARY 31) DOW JONES : 44,544.66 ▼337.47 -0.75% NASDAQ : 19,627.44 ▼54.31 -0.28% S&P500 : 6,040.53 ▼30.64 -0.50% EXCHANGE RATE USD : 1,467.20 (+14.50) JPY : 944.27 (+5.29) CNY : 199.89 (+0.92) EUR : 1,503.37 (-6.13)
Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong acquitted again in appeal over alleged illegal merger
2025/02/03 20:00
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has had his acquittal upheld by an appeals court with regard to allegations of unfairly merging Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. In 2015, Lee was accused of orchestrating the merger to secure control over Samsung Electronics as Samsung C&T was a major shareholder of the company. Lee attended the ruling at the Seoul High Court earlier today, as the judges ruled that he was not guilty of a wide array of allegations ranging from illegal trading to market manipulation to breach of duty. Last year, a lower court cleared him of all charges, ruling that the merger appeared driven by business needs.
S. Korea's industrial output rose in 2024 despite persistent weak domestic demand
2025/02/03 20:00
Findings for 2024 show Korea's industrial output remained sturdy but retail sales lost substantial ground. Moon Hye-ryeon covers the latest data. South Korea's industrial production saw a rise in 2024, largely driven by a recovery in semiconductor exports. However, domestic consumption indicators remained sluggish, highlighting a growing disparity between sectors. According to data from Statistics Korea on Monday, the country's overall industrial production index showed a one-point-seven percent year-on-year increase. This growth outpaced the one-percent increase recorded in 2023, and comes due to strong performance in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing output rose by 4-point-4 percent – a turnaround from the 2-point-6 percent decline recorded in 2023. Semiconductors and pharmaceutical production played a key role with a surge in exports, but domestic manufacturing shipments fell by two percent, underscoring weak domestic demand. The service sector saw slower growth, seeing the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, due to a downturn in retail and wholesale trade and hospitality services. Retail sales dropped by 2-point-2 percent, which is the sharpest annual decline since 2003. This also marks three straight years of contraction in retail sales – the longest streak of decline since data collection began. Sales fell across all three categories measured – durable goods such as automobiles, non-durable goods such as food, and semi-durable goods such as clothing. A spokesperson from the agency said that the impact of the political turmoil and the Jeju Air plane crash in December on these numbers is yet unclear. "Declines in industries like food and services, lodging, arts, sports, and leisure may have been influenced by the political climate and national mourning period in December. That said, it's difficult to isolate the exact impact of these factors from the numbers." Construction activity, particularly in building projects, also recorded the biggest drop since 2001 last year with a decline in completed construction work. Capital investment, however, grew by 4-point-1 percent, driven by increased spending on semiconductor manufacturing equipment and transportation equipment. Moon Hye-ryeon, Arirang News.
Samsung Electronics chief Lee Jae-yong acquitted again in appeal over alleged illegal merger
2025/02/03 17:00
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has had his acquittal upheld by an appeals court with regard to allegations of unfairly merging Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. In 2015 Lee was accused of orchestrating the merger to secure control over Samsung Electronics as Samsung C&T was a major shareholder of the company. Lee attended the ruling at the Seoul High Court earlier today as the judges ruled that he was not guilty of a wide array of allegations ranging from illegal trading to market manipulation to breach of duty. Last year a lower court cleared him of all charges ruling that the merger appeared driven by business needs.
S. Korea's industrial output rose in 2024 despite persistent weak domestic demand
2025/02/03 17:00
Findings for the year 2024 show Korea's industrial output remained sturdy but the country's retail sales lost substantial ground. Our correspondent Moon Hye-ryeon covers the latest data. South Korea's industrial production saw a rise in 2024, largely driven by a recovery in semiconductor exports. However, domestic consumption indicators remained sluggish, highlighting a growing disparity between sectors. According to data from Statistics Korea on Monday, the country's overall industrial production index showed a one-point-seven percent year-on-year increase. This growth outpaced the one-percent increase recorded in 2023, and comes due to strong performance in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing output rose by 4-point-4 percent – a turnaround from the 2-point-6 percent decline recorded in 2023. Semiconductors and pharmaceutical production played a key role with a surge in exports, but domestic manufacturing shipments fell by two percent, underscoring weak domestic demand. The service sector saw slower growth, seeing the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, due to a downturn in retail and wholesale trade and hospitality services. Retail sales dropped by 2-point-2 percent, which is the sharpest annual decline since 2003. This also marks three straight years of contraction in retail sales – the longest streak of decline since data collection began. Sales fell across all three categories measured – durable goods such as automobiles, non-durable goods such as food, and semi-durable goods such as clothing. A spokesperson from the agency said that the impact of the political turmoil and the Jeju Air plane crash in December on these numbers is yet unclear. "Declines in industries like food and services, lodging, arts, sports, and leisure may have been influenced by the political climate and national mourning period in December. That said, it's difficult to isolate the exact impact of these factors from the numbers." Construction activity, particularly in building projects, also recorded the biggest drop since 2001 last year with a decline in completed construction work. Capital investment, however, grew by 4-point-1 percent, driven by increased spending on semiconductor manufacturing equipment and transportation equipment. Moon Hye-ryeon, Arirang News.
S. Korean markets tumble after Trump's tariffs amp up risk of trade war
2025/02/03 17:00
And here in South Korea. The local bourse responded sharply to news of Trump tariffs on U.S. trade partners. The benchmark KOSPI surrendered 2-point-5 percent to close Monday's session at 2-thousand-4-hundred-53 while the tech-heavy Kosdaq sank 3-point-3 percent to settle at 7-hundred-3. The Korean won also weakened against the U.S. dollar with the exchange rate ending at 1-thousand-4-hundred-67 won against the greenback.
S. Korea's industrial output rises in 2024 despite persistent weak domestic demand
2025/02/03 10:00
South Korea's industrial production rose for the first time in four months in December, rounding off the year with an overall rise. Data from Statistics Korea on Monday showed that industrial output rose by 2-point-7 percent in the last month of 2024, contributing to an increase of 1-point-7 percent for the entire year compared to 2023. Manufacturing output showed growth due to a boom in the semiconductor sector, while services output continued to show a downturn. This comes on the back of weak performance in the retail and wholesale sectors especially with domestic demand failing to recover from the fallout of the December martial law declaration.
STOCK
2025/01/31 20:00
2025. 1. 31. KOREAN STOCK MARKET KOSPI : 2,517.37 ▼19.43 (-0.77%) KOSDAQ : 728.29 ▼0.45 (-0.06%) KOSPI200 : 333.36 ▼3.38 (-1.00%) ASIAN STOCK MARKET NIKKEI225 : 39,572.49 +58.52 (+0.15%) HANG SENG : CLOSED SHANGHAI : CLOSED WALL STREET (JANUARY 30) DOW JONES : 44,882.13 ▲168.61 (+0.38%) NASDAQ : 19,681.75 ▲49.42 (+0.25%) S&P500 : 6,071.17 ▲31.86 (+0.53%) EXCHANGE RATE USD : 1,452.70 (+21.40) JPY : 938.98 (+16.96) CNY : 198.97 (+1.43) EUR : 1,509.50 (+13.08)
Samsung Electronics sees limited Q4 operating profit on weakened chip performance
2025/01/31 20:00
On the corporate front, Samsung Electronics posted a rather lackluster operating profit in the fourth quarter, due to a sluggish performance by its chip division. Eyes are now on the company's enhanced fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory chips, soon-to-be supplied. Our Lee Soo-jin reports. South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics posted a solid performance for the year but its fourth-quarter results fell short of market expectations as its semiconductor division posted a sluggish performance. The chipmaker on Friday reported an annual operating profit of more than 32 trillion won, or around 22 billion U.S. dollars, up 3-hundred-98 percent compared to the previous year. And sales came to around 206 billion dollars, up around 16 percent on-year. This marks the second time that the company recorded annual sales in the 200 billion dollar range after it did so for the first time in 2022. But despite the company's solid performance for the year, its fourth-quarter operating profit failed to meet market expectations. While this was expected to log more than 5 billion dollars, it came in at 4-point-4 billion dollars. This comes as the operating profit from the device solution division responsible for semiconductor technology research and development fell slightly compared to the previous quarter, coming in at only around 2 billion dollars in the October to December period. This, according to the company was due to high research and development costs,.. as well as expenses spent on expanding its advanced process production capacity. The company spent a record 7 billion dollars on research and development in the fourth quarter. As for the first quarter this year, only a modest improvement is expected as global demand for chips remains weak. But a turnaround may be seen in future quarters as Bloomberg reported on Friday that Samsung Electronics was cleared to supply its fifth generation eight-layer HBM3E chips to NVIDIA. The South Korean chipmaker's 12-layer version of the chips is still undergoing NVIDIA's quality verification tests. Samsung Electronics during Friday's conference call also announced plans to supply improved fifth-generation HBM3E chips to major clients by the end of the first quarter this year. And it's aiming for mass production of sixth-generation HBM4 in the second half of the year, as it prepares to navigate the various risks and opportunities expected during the Trump administration's second term. Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.
Samsung Electronics sees limited Q4 operating profit on weakened chip performance
2025/01/31 17:00
On the corporate front, Samsung Electronics posted a rather lackluster operating profit in the fourth quarter, due to a sluggish performance by its chip division. Our Lee Soo-jin reports. South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics posted a solid performance for the year but its fourth-quarter results fell short of market expectations as its semiconductor division posted a sluggish performance. The chipmaker reported on Friday an annual operating profit of more than 32 trillion won, or around 22 billion U.S. dollars, up 3-hundred-98 percent compared to the previous year. And sales came to around 206 billion dollars, up around 16 percent on-year. This marks the second time that the company recorded annual sales in the 200 billion dollar range after it did so for the first time in 2022. But despite the company's solid performance for the year, its fourth-quarter operating profit failed to meet market expectations. While this was expected to log more than 5 billion dollars, it came in at 4-point-4 billion dollars. This comes as the operating profit from the device solution division responsible for semiconductor technology research and development fell slightly compared to the previous quarter, coming in at only around 2 billion dollars in the October to December period. This, according to the company was due to high research and development costs,.. as well as expenses spent on expanding its advanced process production capacity. The company spent a record 7 billion dollars on research and development in the fourth quarter. As for the first quarter this year, only a modest improvement is expected as global demand for chips remains weak. But a turnaround may be seen in future quarters as Bloomberg reported on Friday that Samsung Electronics was cleared to supply its fifth generation eight-layer HBM3E chips to NVIDIA. The South Korean chipmaker's 12-layer version of the chips is still undergoing NVIDIA's quality verification tests. Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.
Fed holds rates steady for first policy meeting of 2025
2025/01/30 18:00
The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged in its first monetary policy meeting of the year, and the first since President Donald Trump's inauguration. Following a two-day meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee announced on Wednesday, that it would maintain the rate at its current range of 4-point-2-5 percent to 4-point-5 percent. The decision marks a pause in the Fed's rate cutting cycle, which had seen three consecutive reductions in September, November and December last year. The Fed's cautious stance despite Trump's public calls for rate cuts,. suggests that it is waiting to assess the impact of the new administration's policies.
Fed holds rates steady for first policy meeting of 2025
2025/01/30 12:00
The U.S. Federal Reserve has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged in its first monetary policy meeting of the year, and the first since President Donald Trump's inauguration. Following a two-day meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee announced on Wednesday, that it would maintain the rate at its current range of 4-point-2-5 percent to 4-point-5 percent. The decision marks a pause in the Fed's rate cutting cycle, which had seen three consecutive reductions in September, November and December last year. The Fed's cautious stance despite Trump's public calls for rate cuts,. suggests that it is waiting to assess the impact of the new administration's policies.
U.S. tech stocks plunge over sudden popularity of low-cost Chinese AI app DeepSeek
2025/01/28 18:00
Global investors threw out U.S. tech stocks on Monday over worries that the low-cost Chinese AI startup DeepSeek would overtake the current AI frontrunners. In just a week after its launch of a free AI assistant, DeepSeek on Monday became the most downloaded free app in the U.S., overtaking ChatGPT. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou city by 40-year-old information and electronic engineering graduate Liang Wenfeng. Following the sudden popularity of the Chinese app, the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed over 3% on Monday, and Nvidia lost over a sixth of its value. U.S. President Donald Trump called DeepSeek's strong showing a wake-up call for the tech sector.
U.S. tech stocks plunge over sudden popularity of low-cost Chinese AI app DeepSeek
2025/01/28 12:00
Global investors threw out U.S. tech stocks on Monday over worries that the low-cost Chinese AI startup DeepSeek would overtake the current AI frontrunners. In just a week after its launch of a free AI assistant, DeepSeek on Monday became the most downloaded free app in the U.S., overtaking ChatGPT. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou city by 40-year-old information and electronic engineering graduate Liang Wenfeng. Following the sudden popularity of the Chinese app, the tech-heavy Nasdaq shed over 3% on Monday, and Nvidia lost over a sixth of its value. U.S. President Donald Trump called DeepSeek's strong showing a wake-up call for the tech sector.
STOCK
2025/01/24 20:00
2025. 1. 24. KOREAN STOCK MARKET KOSPI : 2,536.80 +21.31 +0.85% KOSDAQ : 728.74 +4.73 +0.65% KOSPI200 : 336.74 +2.24 +0.67% ASIAN STOCK MARKET NIKKEI225 : 39,931.98 -26.89 -0.07% HANG SENG : 20,066.19 +365.63 +1.86% SHANGHAI : 3,252.63 +22.46 +0.70% WALL STREET (JANUARY 23) DOW JONES : 44,565.07 +408.34 +0.92% NASDAQ : 20,053.68 +44.34 +0.22% S&P500 : 6,118.71 +32.34 +0.53% EXCHANGE RATE USD : 1,431.30 (-6.00) JPY : 922.02 (+3.97) CNY : 197.54 (+0.15) EUR : 1,496.42 (-0.02)
SK hynix, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor report 2024 results; SK hynix achieve highest-ever performance
2025/01/23 20:00
On the corporate front. SK hynix staged a stellar performance last year on the back of strong demand for AI memory. Lee Eun-hee has more. SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, has announced that it recorded its highest-ever revenue and operating profit in 2024, driven by the strong demand for High Bandwidth Memory. The company said Thursday that its revenue surpassed 66 trillion Korean won or around 46 billion U.S. dollars, marking a 102-percent increase compared to the previous year. Operating profit turned positive, soaring to just over 16 billion U.S. dollars. Last year's fourth quarter also saw a record-high operating profit of over 6 billion dollars. SK hynix reported record revenue, surpassing 2022 by over 14 billion U.S. dollars, and its operating profit exceeded the 2018 peak. One expert says the first half of this year is expected to be very promising, noting Trump's AI initiative. "Given the new launch of Trump government, semi-conductor industry in general and HBM in particular, there are a lot of good materials to push SK hynix's stock price at the moment. So it is quite in the short-term based." Meanwhile, LG Electronics achieved record-high revenue in 2024, reaching approximately 61 billion U.S. dollars, a 6-point 6 percent increase compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by strong performance in its core home appliance business and expanding automotive electronics sector, which has seen nine years of consecutive growth. This marks the company's highest revenue in two years. However, both annual and quarterly operating profit declined, attributed to slower recovery in global consumer electronics demand and rising logistics costs. The company experienced an "earnings shock" in quarter four, with operating profit halving and falling more than 56-percent year-on-year to over 93 million U.S. dollars. On the same day, Hyundai Motor also released last year's revenue data, reporting over 175 trillion Korean won or more than 121 billion U.S. dollars, which is up 7-point-7 percent on year, but operating profit declined 5-point-9 percent to around 9-point-7 U.S. dollars. Hyundai Motor's revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 rose nearly 12 percent compared to the same period last year, driven by strong sales of high-value models, including hybrid and Genesis vehicles which boosted the average selling price. However, quarter four operating profit fell 17-percent to almost 2 billion U.S. dollars, impacted by higher incentives, external uncertainties, and a sharp rise in exchange rates. A Hyundai official stated that despite these challenges, the company continues to grow, supported by strong North American sales and increasing hybrid model sales. Lee Eun-hee, Arirang News.
S. Korea's economy grows 2% y/y in 2024 amid weak consumption, construction sector
2025/01/23 20:00
The South Korean economy marked a two-percent annual growth last year, slightly below earlier projections. Lee Soo-jin reports. South Korea's economy only showed modest growth in 2024. That's according to data from the Bank of Korea released on Thursday which shows that the country's gross domestic product a key indicator of economic growth grew 2 percent on-year in 2024. This was lower than both the central bank's November forecast of 2-point-2 percent and the government's forecast of 2-point-1 percent. "After our November forecast, political uncertainty in the country grew, and economic sentiment weakened which then impacted private consumption. Construction investment also remained sluggish as orders remained weak." In 2024,.. private consumption rose 1-point-1 percent, which was lower than the 1-point-8 percent increase of the year before while construction investment entered into negative territory. But as exports saw a sharp rise, jumping to 6-point-9 percent from 3-point-9 percent in 2023, leading economic growth, while modest, to be higher than that of last year's 1-point-4 percent on solid exports, a rise after three straight years of decline. As for the fourth quarter, economic growth expanded only point-1 percent on-quarter,.. and was also lower than the central bank's forecast. The central bank mainly attributed this to smaller growth in private and public spending as well as negative growth in construction investment. This follows an on-quarter increase of 1-point-3 percent in the first quarter, negative growth of point-2 percent in the second, and point-1 percent in the third quarter. With last year's economic growth hovering below forecasts, there are rising concerns about South Korea's economic growth this year, fueled by factors such as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. "Korean economy has been dependent on international trade and export to the United States. Multinational enterprises have promised to build a factory in the United States to avoid tariffs but as long as they make use of some parts from China they are still subject to tariffs." The Bank of Korea on Monday lowered this year's GDP growth forecast to as low as 1-point-6 percent, and the government to 1-point-8 percent in its 2025 economy policy plans released early this month. Lee Soo-jin, Arirang News.
SK hynix, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor report 2024 results; SK hynix achieve highest-ever performance
2025/01/23 17:00
On the corporate front. SK hynix staged a stellar performance last year on the back of strong demand for AI memory. Lee Eun-hee has more. SK hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, has announced that it recorded its highest-ever revenue and operating profit in 2024, driven by the strong demand for High Bandwidth Memory. The company said Thursday that its revenue surpassed 66 trillion Korean won or around 46 billion U.S. dollars, marking a 102-percent increase compared to the previous year. Operating profit turned positive, soaring to just over 16 billion U.S. dollars. Last year's fourth quarter also saw a record-high operating profit of over 6 billion dollars. SK hynix reported record revenue, surpassing 2022 by over 14 billion U.S. dollars, and its operating profit exceeded the 2018 peak. One expert says the first half of this year is expected to be very promising, noting Trump's AI initiative. "Given the new launch of Trump government, semi-conductor industry in general and HBM in particular, there are a lot of good materials to push SK hynix's stock price at the moment. So it is quite in the short-term based." Meanwhile, LG Electronics achieved record-high revenue in 2024, reaching approximately 61 billion U.S. dollars, a 6-point 6 percent increase compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by strong performance in its core home appliance business and expanding automotive electronics sector, which has seen nine years of consecutive growth. This marks the company's highest revenue in two years. However, both annual and quarterly operating profit declined, attributed to slower recovery in global consumer electronics demand and rising logistics costs. The company experienced an "earnings shock" in quarter four, with operating profit halving and falling more than 56-percent year-on-year to over 93 million U.S. dollars. On the same day, Hyundai Motor also released last year's revenue data, reporting over 175 trillion Korean won or more than 121 billion U.S. dollars, which is up 7-point-7 percent on year, but operating profit declined 5-point-9 percent to around 9-point-7 U.S. dollars. Hyundai Motor's revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 rose nearly 12 percent compared to the same period last year, driven by strong sales of high-value models, including hybrid and Genesis vehicles which boosted the average selling price. However, quarter four operating profit fell 17-percent to almost 2 billion U.S. dollars, impacted by higher incentives, external uncertainties, and a sharp rise in exchange rates. A Hyundai official stated that despite these challenges, the company continues to grow, supported by strong North American sales and increasing hybrid model sales. Lee Eun-hee, Arirang News.