DP sweeps, Oh holds Seoul Broadcom triggers AI-chip selloff

In the June 3 local elections the ruling Democratic Party took 12 of 16 metropolitan posts including Gyeonggi, Incheon and Busan, flipping local power and reversing the 2022 PPP-12 vs DP-5 map.

Trailing Jeong Won-o by up to 30 points early in the count, PPP's Oh Se-hoon surged after midnight to win 49.08% by a 0.60-point margin, securing a fifth term as Seoul mayor.

Mira Andreeva, 19, beat Kostyuk 6-1 6-3 to reach her first Grand Slam final. World No. 1 Sabalenka was upset by 25th-ranked Shnaider 3-6 7-5 6-0 in the quarterfinals.

In Game 1 at San Antonio on June 3, the New York Knicks beat the Spurs 105-95 to take the series lead. Jalen Brunson drove the late comeback; Game 2 is June 5 in San Antonio.

Hong Myung-bo named a 26-man squad built around Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae and Lee Kang-in, with a surprise call-up for Lee Ki-hyeok. The first 48-team World Cup opens June 11 across the US, Canada and Mexico.

BOK Q1 household credit rose KRW14T from the prior quarter to a record KRW1,993.1T. Bank lending fell but non-bank and brokerage credit surged via a balloon effect; a KRW2,000T breach looms in Q2.

May consumer prices rose 3.1% y/y, the first 3% print since March 2024. Petroleum surged 24.2% (largest since July 2022) on the Middle East war; core was 2.5% and pump gas around KRW2,010/L.

Per AAA on June 4, the US national average fell 18 cents from a week earlier to $4.24/gallon. Crude under $100 drove a second weekly decline, but prices remain above last year, pressuring households.

NY Fed's Q1 report shows total US household debt up $18B to a record $18.8T. Card balances stood at $1.25T and auto loans $1.69T, while the new-card-delinquency transition rate ran high at 8.6%.

US April food prices (incl. dining) rose 3.2% y/y and at-home food 2.9%. The beef index rose 2.7% in April alone as cattle herds hit a 1960s low, with farm prices seen up as much as 18% this year.

The RBI's MPC decides on June 5. SBI and others expect a 5.25% hold on global uncertainty and a weak rupee, while StanChart and BofA flag a possible 50bp hike given Iran-war oil and a 7% fuel rise.

The rupiah hit a record 18,020/USD on June 4, down 7.2% YTD and among the weakest EM currencies. A balance-of-payments deficit, surging oil-and-gas imports and capital outflows broke the 18,000 line.

The SARB raised its repo rate 25bp to 7% on May 28, its first hike since 2023, in a 4-2 vote. Middle East risk lifted inflation risks and April prices rose from 3.1% to 4%, hitting the target ceiling.

The IMF board approved the second review of Argentina's $48B EFF on May 21, disbursing about $1B. It sees ~3.5% growth and ~25% year-end inflation, citing fiscal and labor reform progress.

Turkey's April inflation reheated to 32.37%, pushing the lira to a record ~45.2/USD as the central bank held its policy rate at 37%. Brazil cut Selic to 14.5%; its next Copom meeting is June 16-17.

Labor releases May payrolls at 8:30am ET June 5. Markets expect about +95K nonfarm and a steady 4.3% jobless rate; ADP private payrolls were a solid +122K in May.

New chair Kevin Warsh, who took office May 22, chairs his first FOMC June 16-17. Prediction markets price a ~97% hold and a 57% chance of no cuts this year, with Middle East oil limiting room to ease.

Korea's May CPI rose 3.1% y/y, the highest in over two years, driven by a 24.2% surge in petroleum from the Middle East war. The sticky print pushed back BOK early-cut hopes and improved the won's outlook.

The won slid to 1,539/USD, its weakest since March 2009, after peaking at 1,531.97 on June 3. Middle East tension, a strong dollar and high oil are pressuring the currency simultaneously.

BOJ Governor Ueda has all but signaled a June hike as Japan's April wholesale prices jumped 4.9%. Most economists also expect the ECB to raise its deposit rate 25bp to 2.25% on June 11.

On June 4 the Dow rose 875 points (1.7%) to a record, with 8 of 11 sectors higher. Healthcare +3.14%, financials +2.67% and real estate +1.87% led, as UnitedHealth gained over 5%.

On June 4 investors trimmed AI-linked names after Broadcom fell 14% post-earnings. The Nasdaq slipped 0.1% while the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, closing mixed amid rotation into non-tech.

On June 4 the Kospi fell 1.84% to 8,639.41, retreating from the prior day's record 8,801. US-Iran tension and high oil stoked energy and inflation worries, dragging Asia lower with US stocks.

On June 4 the Nikkei 225 fell 1.36% to 67,470 and the Hang Seng dropped 1.31% late in the session. US-Iran tension kept oil elevated, spreading risk-off sentiment across Asia.

On June 4 the VIX fell 2.67% to 15.32. WTI eased about 1% to near $95/barrel and Brent to $96.97 as hopes for progress in Iran talks cooled the oil spike somewhat.

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called Marvell the next trillion-dollar company in a June 2 keynote, Marvell jumped over 30% to a record near $280. Its market cap swelled to ~$240B, up 355% in a year.

Broadcom's fiscal Q2 revenue of $22.19B missed estimates. AI chip revenue jumped 143% to $10.8B, but next-quarter guidance of $16B fell short of the ~$17.2B hoped for, sending shares down 14%.

Micron rose 6.46% to a record on June 1 and traded $1,009-1,047 on June 2, up about 900% from its 52-week low of $94.40. UBS tripled its target to $1,625 from $535.

Micron and SK Hynix both crossed a $1T market cap for the first time this week, joining Samsung among chip giants. SK Hynix held a 58% global HBM share in Q1, dominating the AI-memory crunch.

Nvidia traded around $216 on June 4 and went ex-dividend on its $0.25 payout. It unveiled the RTX Spark laptop chip that moves AI work from the cloud to local devices, cementing its direct PC push.

Unveiled at Computex 2026, RTX Spark pairs a Blackwell GPU's 6,144 CUDA cores with a 20-core Grace CPU over NVLink-C2C. It ships this fall in Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and MS Surface laptops, with a 3-gen roadmap shown.

Jensen Huang confirmed full production of the next-gen rack-scale Vera Rubin platform at GTC Taipei on June 1. Some 350 plants across 30 countries take part, with first AWS, Google, Azure and Oracle shipments this summer.

Microsoft announced seven in-house MAI-brand models at Build on June 2. The headliner is the 35B-parameter, 256K-context reasoning model MAI-Thinking-1, alongside code, image and voice models that cut its OpenAI dependence.

Apple unveils a chatbot-style new Siri at its June 8 keynote (10am PT). It adds on-screen awareness, personal context and app control, moves the Siri icon to the Dynamic Island and debuts iOS 27 and the '27' OS lineup.

AMD announced the Ryzen AI Max PRO 400 series, a Zen 5 Strix Halo successor supporting up to 192GB to run larger LLMs. The Halo dev platform with the AI Max+ PRO 495 opens for pre-order in June from $3,999.

Anthropic filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 1. A $65B Series H closed four days earlier set a $965B post-money valuation, making it the most valuable private AI firm, with an October listing floated.

SpaceX filed its S-1 on May 20 and began its roadshow June 4, aiming to price June 11 and start trading June 12 (Nasdaq: SPCX). It targets a $1.8-2T valuation, raising up to $75B for xAI infra, Starlink and Starship.

Cognition, maker of AI software engineer Devin, raised over $1B led by Lux, General Catalyst and 8VC at a $26B valuation. 2026 enterprise usage rose more than 10x and annualized revenue reached $492M.

AI music-generation startup Suno raised $400M led by Bond Capital at a $5.4B post-money valuation. IVP, Forerunner, USV and Alkeon joined, with Matrix, Lightspeed and Menlo Ventures also participating.

OpenAI closed its March round at an $852B post-money valuation with heavy participation from Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank. It is said to be preparing a confidential filing within days, eyeing a $1T-plus September listing.

Bitcoin fell to $63,649 on June 4, briefly breaking $62,000 intraday. It dropped over 13% on the week and about 47% from its 2025 peak of $126,000; key support is cited at $64,677.

US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs logged a 13th straight session of net outflows through June 4, totaling about $4.4B. One June week saw a record $3.4B in outflows, driven by rising yields and profit-taking.

Michael Saylor's Strategy sold 32 bitcoin for $2.5M to cover preferred dividends, its first sale since 2022. Against its 843K-BTC holding at a $75,500 average cost, the current price sits in a loss zone.

When ESMA's MiCA transition ends July 1, unlicensed providers serving EU clients become illegal. BitGo's CEO warned of a major crisis if unlicensed issuers like USDT fail to comply; stablecoin cap is a record $322B.

ETH traded near $1,973 in early June, down nearly 60% from its August 2025 peak of $4,954. Analysts see the US market-structure CLARITY Act as the key variable; Citi cut its 12-month target to $3,175.

In the ASCO 2026 plenary, the phase 3 RASolute 302 trial (500 patients) showed daraxonrasib doubled median overall survival to 13.2 months vs 6.7 for chemo (HR 0.40), with simultaneous NEJM publication, likely a new 2nd-line standard.

In the 532-patient HARMONi-6 phase 3, the PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab plus chemo cut death risk 34% vs tislelizumab plus chemo (HR 0.66). It is the first China-originated cancer drug chosen for an ASCO plenary.

In the 142,250-person NHS-Galleri study over three years, the primary endpoint for stage III/IV diagnoses missed significance. But stage IV diagnoses fell 26% by year three, suggesting earlier detection, with fewer emergency diagnoses.

In the 108-patient SARC041 phase 3, the CDK4 inhibitor abemaciclib extended median PFS in dedifferentiated liposarcoma to 9.7 months vs 1.5 for placebo, a 62% risk cut (HR 0.38) — the first positive phase 3 in the disease.

With Bundibugyo Ebola spreading in Congo and Uganda (900+ suspected, 220+ deaths), the WHO declared a PHEIC on May 16. On June 1, CEPI announced $62M total to fast-track three vaccines from Moderna, IAVI and Oxford.

Director Yeon Sang-ho's 'Gunche' drew 331,490 on June 3 for a cumulative 4,043,759, leading the box office for a 14th straight day. Hitting 1M in 4 days and 3M in 10, it set the fastest pace for a 2026 release.

New release 'Wild Thing' opened second on June 3 with 160,758 for 182,079 cumulative. A24's 'Backrooms' took third with 114,110 and 572,775 cumulative in Korea, forming a contest under 'Gunche's' lead.

A24's 'Backrooms' crossed $100M just six days into its North American run, becoming the studio's first $100M and biggest-ever hit. It opened to $81.4M domestic and $118M worldwide on a ~$10M budget — hugely profitable.

Boynextdoor releases its first full-length album 'HOME' at 6pm on June 8. KOZ unveiled an interactive four-language site evoking pre-debut online nostalgia; title contenders include 'Knock' and 'Viral'.

BLACKPINK's Lisa will perform at the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony before the US-Paraguay match at LA's SoFi Stadium on June 12. Joining Katy Perry and Future, she becomes the first female K-pop solo headliner.

New Gucci director Demna shut down New York's Times Square for his Cruise 2027 debut on May 16, filling 50-plus billboards with virtual Gucci ads and casting Tom Brady and Cindy Crawford to generate buzz.

Jonathan Anderson presented his first Dior Cruise 2027 at LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries on May 13. Set against the Peter Zumthor-designed wing, it conjured an old-Hollywood fantasy with lavish florals and embroidery.

Matthieu Blazy showed his first Chanel Cruise 2027 on April 28 at Biarritz's Casino Municipal, Coco Chanel's starting point. On a 'beneath the salon, the sea' theme he reworked the 1926 little black dress, with Nicole Kidman in the front row.

Louis Vuitton showed Cruise 2027 in the Frick Collection's first-floor galleries on May 20 — the museum's first-ever runway show — and began a three-year patronage. Nicolas Ghesquiere continued his signature architectural staging.

Weak Q1 sales at LVMH, Kering and Hermes dented recovery hopes, but luxury stocks rebounded in June on upgrades for LVMH and Kering. A recovery in Chinese demand and renewed creativity underpin the optimism.

Turnout in the June 3 local elections was 61.0%, up 11 points from 2022. The ruling Democratic Party swept 12 of 16 metropolitan posts, while the PPP held four including the Seoul mayoralty, defending the capital.

Choo Mi-ae of the Democratic Party won the Gyeonggi governorship with 55.04%, beating the PPP's Yang Hyang-ja (39.37%) by 16 points to become Korea's first female metropolitan governor, pledging free transit for ages 6-18 and a chip/AI cluster.

A reshuffle looms as PM Kim Min-seok returns to the party. Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho has emerged as front-runner for next PM, with chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik and SME minister Han Seong-suk also in the mix; a nod could come this week.

The US House passed a war-powers resolution demanding an end to hostilities with Iran, 215-208, with four Republicans including Massie joining. On day 100 of the war that began Feb 28, it still needs the Senate but isn't veto-bound.

A US-brokered Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire was reached June 1, but Hezbollah leader Qassem rejected it as void without a full Israeli withdrawal. Within hours both sides traded strikes again, shaking the Lebanon truce.

Iran's negotiators declared a halt to mediated message exchanges and warned they would move to a full Hormuz blockade in retaliation for ceasefire violations. The strait, which carried about a fifth of world oil, has been paralyzed since March 4.

On June 4 Brent fell 0.86% to $96.97/barrel and WTI eased about 1% to near $95. Oil, which had topped $120 right after the blockade, has since pulled back by double-digit percentages on hopes of a strait reopening.

Trump told ABC on June 1 a strait reopening and ceasefire extension could be reached within a week. The UK committed drones, jets and warships to Hormuz defense, and a Bahrain-led resolution urged escort cooperation.

OPEC and non-OPEC hold their 41st ministerial meeting on June 7. On May 3, seven members including Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to add 188,000 barrels/day; any further increase amid the Hormuz disruption is this year's key swing factor.

Surging AI power demand is driving Big Tech to lock in nuclear capacity. Oklo and Meta agreed on a 1.2GW Ohio nuclear campus, an AI data center powered by a reactor launched at Idaho National Lab, and Constellation PPAs are expanding.

The BLS releases May payrolls at 8:30am ET on the 5th. April added 115K with 4.3% unemployment; May is seen at +80K to +100K with the jobless rate holding at 4.3%. Wage growth and participation will steer rate-cut bets.

Cumulative tech layoffs this year have topped 148,000. Meta cut about 8,000 (10% of staff) and froze 6,000 openings, citing funding for AI investment, while LinkedIn, Wix and others joined the cuts at a faster pace than last year.

Amazon confirmed 16,000 more cuts in January, bringing six-month layoffs to 30,000 including October's 14,000. The goal is to trim middle management and bureaucracy to fund AI and AWS data-center investment, with more cuts not ruled out.

The US 16-24 jobless rate was 9.4% in January, double the 4.3% overall. Entry-level postings fell 35% over 18 months, and a February Harvard study found junior hiring dropped 9-10% at firms adopting generative AI.

The 2026 minimum wage is KRW10,320/hour, up 2.9% (KRW290) from 2025's KRW10,030 — KRW2,156,880 a month at 209 hours. It was set by joint labor-management agreement for the first time since 2008, though unions lamented the small rise.

On June 4 Tesla widened its driverless robotaxi zone to the entire Austin metro, from about 20 to 245 sq km, now covering I-35, the airport and Pflugerville. But a year in, only about 20 vehicles operate, fueling skepticism.

On May 28 Waymo began public rides on its new Zeekr-based 'Ojai' robotaxi in LA, Phoenix and SF. Its sixth-gen driver cuts sensor count 42% to target a sub-$20,000 unit cost, signaling profit-focused expansion.

BYD sold 383,453 units in May, its first y/y rise (+0.3%) in nine months. Overseas sales hit a record 160,644, but Jan-May cumulative of 1.41M was down 20.3% y/y, so the recovery remains slow.

ACEA data released June 2 showed Tesla's May EU+UK registrations fell 49% y/y to 14,210, the worst since 2019. Germany was -56% and France -51%, with BYD outselling Tesla in monthly EV registrations for the third time this year.

Joby Aviation completed New York's first point-to-point eVTOL air-taxi demos, flying from JFK to downtown and the East 34th Street heliport. Touting a sub-10-minute Manhattan-JFK link, it continues its 'Electric Skies Tour'.

Claims like 'why open the ballot boxes' spread again, but the NEC opened early-voting ballot-box CCTV for anyone to view 24/7. This election's early-voting turnout hit a record 23.51%, undercutting the conspiracies.

The National Office of Investigation booked 4,191 election offenders from Feb 3 to June 3, with false/fake-news smear cases the largest at 1,365 (32.5%). Fifty-one people (32 cases) were caught using deepfakes for campaigning, six arrested.

Through May 27, the NEC's deepfake takedown requests reached 10,319 — 98.2% of the 2025 presidential election's 10,510 and over 25 times the 2024 general election's 388. AI fake-news offenders numbered 921.

A red-and-orange map on X and TikTok was passed off as European confirmed cases, but its creator said it tallied news/report signals, not confirmed cases. The ECDC confirmed just 11 actual cases through May 26.

A cruise-ship cluster fueled 'plandemic' and 'COVID 2.0' conspiracies, but the KDCA said risk is low because the carrier rodents don't live in Korea. The WHO also rated the global risk as low.