Chip sell-off erases rate-cut hopes Won at 1,560, Kospi retreats to 8,639

Brunson sank the go-ahead free throws with 9.5 seconds left and Wembanyama's final jumper missed, giving the Knicks a 105-104 win and a 2-0 series lead. Game 3 is June 8 at Madison Square Garden.

On June 6, 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva beat Poland's Maja Chwalinska 6-3, 6-3 to claim her first Grand Slam title. She is the youngest Roland Garros women's champion since Seles in 1992.

Alexander Zverev and Flavio Cobolli meet in the Roland Garros men's singles final on June 7. Zverev beat Mensik, while Cobolli reached his first major final via Arnaldi's retirement, chasing a first title.

The June 3 Knicks-Spurs Finals Game 1 on ABC drew an average 16.93 million viewers, the most since the 2019 Game 6. Viewership rose about 90% year over year and peaked at 19.63 million at 11 p.m.

The 2026 World Cup kicks off June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City with a Mexico-South Africa opener. As the first US-Canada-Mexico co-hosted edition, 48 nations play 104 matches through July 19.

Food-and-beverage franchises raised prices in unison right after the June 3 local elections. Theborn Korea raises menu prices across 11 brands by about 11% on average from June 9, and Mega MGC Coffee lifts three drinks by 200 won each from June 19.

May consumer prices rose 3.1% year over year, the biggest gain since March 2024 (2 years, 2 months). Oil products surged 24.2% (gasoline 23.1%, diesel 33.3%) on Middle East risk, lifting the index.

The living-costs index of frequently bought items rose 3.3% in May, the largest gain since April 2024 (3.6%). Food rose 2.1% and non-food 4.2%, with livestock up 5.8% and seafood up 5.0%.

In the second week of May, Seoul apartment jeonse prices rose 0.28% week over week, the highest in about 10.5 years since November 2015. The 2.89% cumulative gain this year far exceeds last year's full-year 0.48% as the crunch spreads across the metro area.

As of May 28, household loans at the top five banks reached 770.27tn won, up about 2.98tn won from end-April. Mortgages (612tn won) edged up while credit loans jumped about 2.65tn won, driving the overall increase.

In the June 3 local elections the ruling Democratic Party swept 12 of 16 metropolitan mayor/governor seats in a landslide. The People Power Party held four including Seoul, where Oh Se-hoon won a fifth term. Turnout was 61.0%, up 11pp from 2022.

In early June the Trump administration released a report proposing 10-12.5% tariffs on 60 countries, citing forced-labor concerns. Using Section 301, it bypasses February's Supreme Court ruling voiding IEEPA tariffs; Korea, China and Japan are among those facing 12.5%.

In the April 12 Hungarian election, Peter Magyar's opposition Tisza party won about 141 of 199 seats, securing a two-thirds supermajority and ending Orban's 16-year rule. Magyar pushes to reset EU ties and deepen Central European cooperation.

The Iran situation shifted into a blockade-diplomacy phase, with the US tightening pressure on Iranian ports and Iran sustaining a Strait of Hormuz blockade and ship threats. The strait carries about 20 million barrels a day, roughly 20% of seaborne oil.

President Lee Jae-myung set the 2026 budget at 728tn won, up 8.1% year over year, tripling AI spending to 10.1tn won. He is pushing constitutional reform to disperse presidential power and strengthen legislative checks, with the June 3 win providing momentum.

The Minimum Wage Commission began deliberations for the 2027 minimum wage. Labor will seek a double-digit hike to offset real-wage erosion from high inflation, while business will propose a fifth straight freeze. The statutory deadline is end-June.

In the 2027 minimum-wage review, whether to apply the minimum wage to platform and piece-rate workers such as delivery riders and couriers emerged as the biggest issue. A hardline standoff is expected over the 'three issues' of the hike rate, piece-rate work and sector-based differentials.

Hyundai Motor labor and management opened 2026 wage talks. The union demands a 149,600-won base-pay hike, a bonus of about 3.1tn won (30% of 2025 net profit of 10.36tn won), AI-related job security and a retirement-age extension.

A general strike by Samsung Electronics' majority union was averted just before the deadline in May 20 talks chaired by the labor minister. A May 22-27 vote ratified the deal with 73.7% in favor, though a bonus gap between the chip and non-chip/DX divisions remains contested.

Global IT layoffs topped 142,000 this year. Profitable firms such as Oracle (about 30,000) and Meta (8,000) cut staff to fund $700bn of AI infrastructure investment. On June 3, Uber cut 23% of its people division and GitLab 14% of total staff.

May nonfarm payrolls released June 5 rose 172,000, more than double the Dow Jones estimate of 80,000, with unemployment steady at 4.3%. Average hourly earnings rose 3.4% year over year, the strongest in two years, weakening Fed rate-cut expectations.

Markets price the June 16-17 FOMC hold at effectively 99% yet revived odds of another hike this year on the strong jobs print. April CPI had climbed to 3.8% on energy prices, compounded by Middle East uncertainty.

The Bank of Japan held its policy rate at 0.75% on April 28 but a 6-3 split exposed the largest rift under Ueda. With Middle East war-driven upside price pressure, normalization debate is set to intensify at the June meeting.

At its February 5 meeting the ECB held all three policy rates, signaling it had wrapped up the cutting cycle barring an unexpected shock. Eurozone policy entered a wait-and-see phase, with the next meeting on June 11.

The Bank of Korea held its base rate at 2.50% for an eighth straight meeting in May. With April inflation at 2.6%, the highest since July 2024, and a weak won, it raised its 2026 growth forecast to 2.6% on strong chip exports.

A semiconductor sell-off hammered markets June 5, sending the Nasdaq down 4.18% to 25,709.43, its worst day since April 2025. The S&P 500 fell 2.64% to 7,383.74 and the Dow lost 695 points (1.35%) to 50,866.78.

The Kospi rose 0.15% to a record 8,801 on June 4 but fell 1.84% to 8,639 on June 5 amid the US chip shock. The record run that had spiked to an intraday 8,933.62 on June 2 lost steam.

The won/dollar rate jumped 1.77% to 1,559.95 on June 5 (won weaker), marking the weakest won value since 2009. The won is down over 7% this year, even as the Kospi more than doubled, in a striking decoupling.

Samsung Electronics topped 2,000tn won in market cap for the first time (2,028tn) in early June, driving the Kospi past 8,800. But it fell about 5% intraday on June 5 amid the chip shock, as retail investors net bought over 4tn won of Samsung and Hynix to absorb foreign selling.

The US 10-year Treasury yield slipped 4bp to 4.46% on June 5. WTI rose 2.4% to $96 a barrel and Brent reached $97.77 amid Middle East tension. Hezbollah's rejection of a ceasefire stoked geopolitical risk in rates and oil.

Marvell jumped 32.52% on June 2 after Nvidia's Jensen Huang named it a 'next trillion-dollar company' candidate at Computex. Q1 revenue of $2.418bn (+28%) and Q2 guidance of $2.7bn (+35%) backed the move.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) surged 19% on strong Q2 results driven by booming demand for immersion-cooled AI servers. It had jumped nearly 26% in premarket right after the report, reaffirming AI infrastructure optimism.

Broadcom fell 14% on June 4 as Q3 AI chip revenue guidance of $16bn missed the $17.2bn consensus and it did not raise its annual outlook. This 'buy the rumor, sell the news' reaction triggered the broad chip plunge.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 10.3% on June 5, its biggest drop since March 2020. Nvidia fell 6.2% and Intel, Micron, AMD and Broadcom dropped 7.9-13.3%. Micron lost 17% over two days and AMD 12.6%.

Dell Technologies posted record quarterly revenue of $43.8bn (+88% YoY) as AI-optimized server revenue surged 757%. The AI infrastructure investment boom lifted hardware makers' results.

Bitcoin opened June 5 at $63,812 and fell intraday to $61,929, down about 21% from its $80,000 high on May 15. The strong May jobs print and Hezbollah's ceasefire rejection drove the macro and geopolitical pressure.

Ethereum opened June 5 at $1,768.86 (-2.4% on the day) but traded at $1,663.43, down 10.2% over 24 hours. The steeper drop than bitcoin showed risk-off sentiment hitting altcoins harder.

US spot bitcoin ETFs saw 13 straight trading days of outflows from May 15, draining a cumulative $4.4bn (about 51,726 BTC). A $3.05M net inflow on June 5 ended the record outflow run, signaling a reversal.

Spot ether ETFs also ended a 17-day outflow streak with a $19.3M net inflow on June 5. The entire inflow came from BlackRock's ETHA, mirroring the reversal in bitcoin ETFs.

The CFTC approved Coinbase to offer crypto perpetual futures, signaling a shift in the US derivatives landscape. But the Senate's market-structure bill was delayed amid Coinbase opposition, so regulatory clarity will firm up gradually through 2026.

On June 1 Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO registration with the SEC. A prior $65bn Series H valued it at $965bn, surpassing OpenAI for the first time, and its May revenue run rate reached $47bn.

On June 4 fintech Ramp raised a $750M Series F led by Iconiq, GIC and Ontario Teachers'. Its valuation jumped from $32bn last year to $44bn; it crossed $1bn in annual revenue with Visa, Uber and Figma as customers.

On June 4 open-source backend platform Supabase raised $500M led by GIC, reaching a $10.5bn post-money valuation. Accel, Y Combinator, Coatue, Stripe and Salesforce Ventures participated.

Helion, aiming to build the world's first fusion power plant, raised a $465M Series G led by Thrive Capital. Its post-money valuation reached $15.5bn, extending the deep-tech megaround trend.

On June 3 AI market-intelligence platform AlphaSense closed $350M led by Viking Global, Accenture Ventures and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Its valuation nearly doubled from $4bn to $7.5bn.

On June 3 Tesla formally launched a driverless robotaxi service across the Austin metro area. It removed the safety monitors previously seated on board, entering a fully autonomous phase and marking an inflection point in the robotaxi race.

Rivian begins first customer deliveries of the R2 on June 9. It offers up to 656 horsepower, 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and an EPA-rated 330-mile range. An R1 promotion runs June 4-30 alongside it as Rivian expands its mass-market EV lineup.

Tesla reclaimed the global EV sales lead from BYD in Q1. BYD voiced strong confidence in hitting 1.5 million overseas sales in 2026 and kept up its export drive, reigniting the two firms' battle for global supremacy.

Airbus delivered 81 aircraft to 45 customers in May. AirAsia ordered 150 A220s, a record A220 order, though a shortage of Pratt & Whitney engines was flagged as a delivery constraint.

Hyundai cut the Ioniq 5's price by up to $9,800 within a single model year, pricing it below $40,000. The Kia EV3, with up to 320 miles of range, is due in late 2026, as Hyundai targets US EV demand on price competitiveness.

On June 1 Jensen Huang unveiled the RTX Spark superchip, an integrated CPU+GPU co-developed with MediaTek. It will ship this fall in Dell, HP, Lenovo and MS Surface devices; AMD, Intel and Qualcomm shares fell on the day.

At GTC Taipei on June 1, Huang announced full production of the next-gen Vera Rubin platform. All three of Samsung, SK hynix and Micron were certified as 6th-gen HBM4 suppliers, which Huang reaffirmed on a June 5 Korea visit.

On June 2 Huang publicly asked SK hynix to expand output, citing a chip supply crunch. The industry estimates SK hynix will take 60-70% of HBM4 volume, Samsung 25-30% and Micron the rest.

At Build on June 2, Microsoft unveiled its first in-house coding model, MAI-Code-1-Flash, which turns natural-language descriptions into app and web source code. The move to reduce OpenAI reliance intensifies coding-model competition with Google and Anthropic.

Apple is expected to unveil a new Siri powered by Google's Gemini model alongside iOS 27 and macOS 27 at its June 8 keynote. Apple Intelligence expansions across Wallet, Safari and Shortcuts, plus a 7-inch HomePad, are also rumored.

The RBI's MPC unanimously held the repo rate at 5.25% on June 5, keeping a neutral stance. The rupee hit a record low of 96.96 per dollar; the FY27 inflation forecast was raised to 5.1% and growth cut to 6.6%.

Bank Indonesia raised its policy rate by 50bp to 5.25% on May 20 as the rupiah slid to a record low near 17,700 per dollar amid Middle East war-driven weakness. Markets had expected just 25bp, making it a shock.

The Turkish lira broke past 46 per dollar in June to a record low, down about 7% year to date. Central-bank signals that disinflation will be slower than expected, due to Middle East energy and food shocks, drove the slide.

The IMF praised Argentina's stabilization program as a recent best case, projecting about 3.5% growth in 2026 and year-end inflation near 25%. Daily FX purchases totaled about $7.5bn YTD, and net reserves improved.

The SARB held the repo rate at 6.75% at its first policy meeting of the year, though 2 of 6 members backed a 25bp cut. The rand weakened to about 15.80 per dollar, its softest since mid-2022.

As of June 4, US measles cases this year reached 2,030, nearing the record 2,288 of 2025. Over 92% of patients are unvaccinated and 6% (127) were hospitalized; 30 new clusters across four states threaten elimination status.

On June 4 Innovent Biologics said its CLDN18.2-targeting ADC IBI343 met the primary endpoint in an international Phase 3 trial for advanced refractory gastric cancer. China's NMPA accepted the NDA; it is the first CLDN18.2 ADC under regulatory review worldwide.

On May 29 the FDA approved Shionogi's ensitrelvir (Xocova) for Covid-19 post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). A Phase 3 trial showing significantly lower onset risk by day 10 versus placebo was the basis; it is the first oral option for PEP.

An FDA decision on the plant-derived alkaloid smoking-cessation drug cytisinicline is due by June 20. Phase 3 trials ORCA-2 and ORCA-3 showed significantly higher quit rates versus placebo; if approved it would be the first new cessation drug in about 20 years.

The FDA approved the oral obesity drug orforglipron (Foundayo) as the first new molecular entity under the National Priority Voucher program. The decision came 50 days after filing and 294 days ahead of the PDUFA date, the fastest NME approval since 2002.

Brent crude fell about 3% to $94.66 a barrel on June 5 and WTI retreated to about $91. Hopes for US-Iran talks progress mixed with Israel-Lebanon ceasefire uncertainty; Brent had risen to $97.95 on June 4.

At its May 3 meeting OPEC+ decided to raise June output by 188,000 barrels a day, its first meeting after the UAE's shock exit. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq and four others took part; the increase was slightly smaller than May's 206,000 b/d.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively blockaded, the IEA labeled it the largest supply disruption in oil-market history. Tanker transits fell about 70% and over 150 ships waited outside the strait; Dubai crude hit a record $166 in March.

European natural gas (TTF) futures rose to about €49.2 per MWh on June 5. The Hormuz blockade intensified LNG reallocation and competition with Asian buyers, while storage at just 38% raised winter restocking worries.

According to the IEA, solar posted about a 600TWh generation increase in 2025, the largest-ever annual gain for a single power technology. Renewable generation approached coal's level; solar's share is set to hit 10% in 2026 and near 18% by 2030.

The 79th Tony Awards, airing live on CBS June 7, see 'Lost Voices' and 'Schmigadoon!' lead with 12 nominations each. Singer Pink hosts the show from Radio City Music Hall.

On the June 6 Billboard Hot 100, Drake's 'Janice STFU' held No. 1 for a second straight week, his first multi-week chart-topper of this decade, riding strong streaming since release.

Paramount's 'Scary Movie' opened June 5 and is projected to take more than $40M in its first week. Critics panned it, however, with a 27% Rotten Tomatoes freshness score, splitting box office and reviews.

On New Music Friday, June 5, Taylor Swift released a new song, 'I Knew It, I Knew You,' for Disney/Pixar's 'Toy Story 5.' Pink Floyd and Pitbull also released new records the same day in a crowded slate.

After registering their marriage in London on May 31, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner held a three-day wedding in Palermo, Sicily on June 5-7. The cost was reported at about $1.7M, with 200 guests including Charli XCX.

On June 5 Nike unveiled seven World Cup pre-match pieces. They include a Virgil Abloh Archive (V.A.A.) capsule for Team USA and collaborations with Drake and Slawn, kicking off World Cup collab marketing in earnest.

The adidas x Willy Chavarria 'Comienza Con El Sueño' collection, drawing on Chicano culture, launches globally June 10 on adidas.com, the CONFIRMED app and major retailers, foregrounding the collaboration's cultural message.

Kith teamed with adidas and Lionel Messi to release six sneakers. The collection jointly marks the 20th anniversary of Messi's pro debut and Kith's 15th anniversary, drawing buzz for the football star-streetwear tie-up.

Fendi named Maria Grazia Chiuri chief creative officer. She will take on fall 2026 womenswear first, then menswear in June and couture in July. The move after leaving Dior drew industry attention.

Despite the luxury slowdown, new stores on Europe's prime luxury streets rose 13% year over year, with the three big groups taking about a third of them. Louis Vuitton is also opening its first hotel on the Champs-Élysées.

Citing ballot shortages and mismanagement, some YouTubers revived claims that 'fake ballots flooded constituencies nationwide.' But many court rulings and scientific reviews have found no basis, and administrative errors are distinct from organized fraud.

An X user spread a claim that 'Trump had a stroke and the government is covering it up,' citing an asymmetric-eye photo. Snopes found Trump appeared publicly every day from May 27 to June 3, and the White House called it 'entirely false.'

A 1997 Simpsons scene of a fictional Mexico-Portugal match was recast as a 'prediction of Portugal winning the 2026 World Cup final.' Fact-checkers found no mention of the World Cup, a final or a win in the scene, a recycled hoax also spread in 2018 and 2022.

AI-generated and video-game clips of the Iran war spread to millions of views, and X's chatbot Grok and Google's Gemini even certified fakes as 'not AI, real photos,' deepening confusion. BBC and CNN checks confirmed many were AI fabrications.

A woman in her 50s was reported to have made an AI-forged newspaper impersonating the Gwangju Ilbo masthead to spread a distorted 'May 18 was on North Korean orders' claim on social media. The North Korea-involvement theory has repeatedly been found baseless in investigations and trials.