US May CPI 4.2% shock, KOSPI sinks to 7731 US-Iran clash flares, ECB hikes today

The US May CPI released June 10 rose 4.2% year-on-year, the highest since April 2023. Energy jumped 23.5%, making up over 60% of the monthly gain, and core inflation hit a 9-month high of 2.9%.

After the US struck Iranian air defenses on June 9 in retaliation for the downed Apache, Iran's Revolutionary Guard hit US bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait with missiles and drones on June 10. All three intercepted them, with no casualties.

On June 10 KOSPI fell 366.11 points (-4.52%) to 7,730.82 on US CPI caution. Foreigners net-sold 2.77 trillion won, triggering an afternoon sell-side sidecar and erasing the prior day's 8% rebound in one session.

The ECB is all but certain to raise its deposit rate from 2.00% to 2.25% at its June 11 meeting. With the Iran-driven energy shock pushing eurozone inflation back up, markets price a near-unanimous hike.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup opens June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Ahead of the Mexico-South Africa opener, Shakira and Burna Boy premiere the official theme 'Dai Dai,' kicking off the largest-ever 48-nation, 104-match tournament.

Korea's May CPI rose 3.1% year-on-year, the highest since March 2024, per Statistics Korea. Petroleum jumped 21.9% to lead the gains and food rose 1.6%, deepening grocery-basket pressure.

The national average gasoline price reached 2,011 won per liter, rising for a sixth straight week per KNOC's Opinet. Higher crude from the Hormuz blockade and a weak won compounded fuel-cost pressure for drivers and logistics.

The top five banks' household loan balance rose 2.98 trillion won in a month to 770.27 trillion won. Credit loans surged 2.65 trillion won, the largest increase since April 2021, raising household-soundness concerns.

In early June the won-dollar rate hovered in the 1,520s, keeping the high-FX regime in place. Analysts warn that costlier dollar-priced imports are being passed through to food and energy, adding upside price pressure.

May dining-out prices rose 2.8%, near the 3.1% headline. Lower ramen and cooking-oil factory prices were offset by costlier bread, snacks and restaurants, so households' felt food burden hasn't eased.

The People Power Party elected three-term lawmaker Chung Jum-sik as its new floor leader in a runoff at a June 10 caucus. Chung won 55 votes to Kim Do-eup's 48, a 7-vote margin that keeps the leadership faction in the floor command.

PM nominee Han Sung-suk faced questions on June 10 over alleged irregular gifting of a Songpa apartment and illegal extension of a Jongno property. Her 44.1-billion-won net worth including Naver stock options is the highest of any nominee since 1993.

Amid loud calls to step down after the June 3 local-election rout (12-4), leader Chang Dong-hyeok kept demanding a 'nationwide re-election' and brushed off a decision on his future. New floor leader Chung dodged the issue, citing 'collective wisdom.'

On his first North Korea visit in seven years, June 8-9, China's Xi Jinping held a summit with Kim Jong-un and declared strategic cooperation including stronger military exchanges. The joint statement dropped any mention of denuclearization, read as a sign of tightening North-China alignment.

US Secretary Rubio said Iran agreed to nuclear talks, but they stalled again over disputes on enrichment rights and handling highly enriched uranium. President Trump holds reopening Hormuz and a nuclear-weapons ban as red lines.

US weekly initial jobless claims rose 13,000 from the prior week to 225,000 as of May 30, a 4-month high. The 4-week moving average was 214,750, with the labor market still broadly stable.

As of June 10, US tech layoffs this year reached 183,966 across 247 companies, with 55% citing AI/automation as the main reason. TrueUp projects 2026 tech layoffs could reach 370,000.

Salesforce filed a California WARN on June 10 to cut 86 Agentforce and MuleSoft staff effective August 7. It was a third restructuring after 1,000 cuts earlier this year, accelerating its AI transition.

In Statistics Korea's April data, the youth (15-29) employment rate fell 1.6 points year-on-year to 43.7%, down for a 24th straight month. It is the longest slump since the global financial crisis, with the 25-29 economically inactive population topping 780,000.

In Q1 2026 the US new-grad (22-27) unemployment rate hit 5.7%, exceeding the overall 4.2% by 1.5 points for a record gap. AI's replacement of entry-level roles was cited as a main cause.

The US May CPI released June 10 came in at 4.2% year-on-year, the highest since April 2023. Energy surged 23.5% to make up over 60% of the gain, and core also hit a 9-month high at 2.9%.

The June 16-17 FOMC has a 97% chance of holding at 3.50-3.75%. The key question at Kevin Warsh's first meeting is whether the dot plot moves up, with some now seeing the first cut pushed to 2027.

The ECB is all but certain to raise its deposit rate from 2.00% to 2.25% on June 11. President Lagarde is expected to keep a July hike on the table while sticking to a data-dependent, meeting-by-meeting approach.

In a June 9 Bloomberg survey, 49 of 51 economists expect the BOJ to lift its rate from 0.75% to 1.0% on June 16, with market-implied odds at 97%. Strong Q1 GDP and energy prices strengthen the tightening case.

The Bank of Korea held its rate at 2.50% for an eighth straight meeting on May 28, with a hawkish minority persisting. Won weakness and renewed energy inflation constrain easing, making the July 16 meeting a hike pivot.

On June 10 KOSPI fell 366.11 points (-4.52%) to 7,730.82 on US CPI caution. Foreigners net-sold 2.77 trillion won for a 23rd straight session, and an afternoon sell-side sidecar was triggered.

When the US May CPI hit a 3-year high of 4.2% on June 10, the S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the Nasdaq 2% and the Dow 950 points. Futures markets raised odds of a December FOMC hike, fanning tightening fears.

Right after the CPI release the US 10-year yield rose over 1bp to 4.546%. With monthly core CPI at 0.2%, below estimates, the bond selloff was limited and bets on the Fed's next move stayed split.

On June 10 the won-dollar rate traded in the 1,526 range, up slightly from the prior 1,525.9. Renewed US-Iran military conflict pushed oil higher and supported the dollar, capping further won appreciation.

Foreigners extended selling to a 23rd straight session since May 7, worsening KOSPI supply-demand. They net-sold 2.77 trillion won again on June 10, leaving retail dip-buying unable to defend the index amid high FX and US tightening fears.

Intel rose 12.45% to 111.79 dollars on June 8 on reports Google ordered 3 million 18A-process TPUs. With news that Nvidia is evaluating 18A as well, Intel's year-to-date gain reached 196%.

Marvell rose 9.63% to 288.85 dollars on June 8 after confirmation of S&P 500 inclusion (effective June 22), up 210% year-to-date. Jensen Huang naming it a 'next trillion-dollar company' also fueled buying.

During June 9 KOSPI trading SK Hynix rose 7.8% and Samsung about 6%, partly recouping the prior day's crash. The two stocks' combined market-cap weight topped 50.7% of the KOSPI for the first time on May 29.

Corning rose 5.61% to 187.54 dollars on June 8 after unveiling a multiyear AI data-center optical-fiber supply deal with Amazon. It was its third big AI deal after Meta and Nvidia, lifting the stock 115% year-to-date.

Micron rose 4.37% on June 9 to touch a 52-week high of 1,046 dollars, up 203% year-to-date. Goldman Sachs said HBM supply meets only 60% of demand and that the memory shortage will persist into 2028.

Bitcoin traded at 61,593 dollars on June 10, down 17% on the week and at its lowest since October 2024. But after May core CPI eased slightly to 2.9%, it narrowly held the 60,000-dollar support.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows for a 13th straight session, with 4.4 billion dollars out in June. The week ending June 6 alone saw 1.72 billion in outflows, the biggest weekly figure since February 2025.

US spot Ether ETFs extended outflows to a record 17 straight sessions since May 8. ETH fell to an intraday 1,505 dollars on June 6, and Standard Chartered cut its target 47% to 4,000 dollars.

The EU MiCA transition grace period ends July 1, after which unlicensed crypto-asset services become illegal. Only about 130 CASPs are licensed EU-wide, and over 540 million euros in AML/KYC fines have been levied since enforcement.

Strategy bought 1,550 bitcoin at an average 65,332 dollars between June 1-7, lifting holdings to 845,256. It was a large rebuy just two weeks after its first sale since 2022 (32 BTC) to fund a dividend.

SpaceX set its IPO price at 135 dollars per share on June 11, valuing it at 1.77 trillion dollars and raising 75 billion in the largest-ever IPO. It issues 555.6 million shares and lists on Nasdaq as SPCX on June 12.

Anthropic filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC on June 1, with annualized revenue (ARR) of about 47 billion dollars as of May 2026, up fivefold in a year. A 65-billion Series H valued it at 965 billion, with a trillion-dollar debut floated.

AI coding startup Cognition closed a 1-billion-dollar Series D on May 27 at a 26-billion-dollar valuation. Revenue grew 13-fold in 12 months from 37 million to 492 million dollars, with agents writing over 90% of its own code.

Open-source database platform Supabase closed a GIC-led 500-million-dollar Series F on June 4, doubling its value in eight months to 10.5 billion dollars. AI agents account for the majority of new deployments.

AI market-intelligence platform AlphaSense raised 350 million dollars on June 3, nearly doubling its value to 7.5 billion from 4 billion. Q1 2026 ARR topped 600 million, with over 70% of the S&P 500 as clients.

Rivian began customer deliveries of the R2 Performance (57,990 dollars) on June 9. It targets 20,000-25,000 deliveries within 2026, with reservation holders receiving invitations and taking delivery in 2-6 weeks.

Tesla widened its driverless robotaxi zone to the whole 245-square-mile Austin metro, including the airport, on June 3. But with only about 20 cars actually running, debate flared over wait times and expansion pace.

Waymo began rides in its new Zeekr-built 'Ojai' robotaxi in San Francisco, LA and Phoenix on May 28. The 6th-gen hardware cuts sensors 42% to push the per-vehicle target cost below 20,000 dollars.

BYD sold 456,253 vehicles overseas in January-April 2026, up 70% year-on-year. Europe, Southeast Asia and North America each grew about a third, moving it toward a 1.5-million annual overseas target.

Joby Aviation plans to launch its first commercial eVTOL service in Dubai in Q3 2026. It completed a piloted test flight at a Manhattan heliport in April and secured FAA Stage 4 TIA, moving toward commercialization.

At Tim Cook's final keynote on June 8, Apple unveiled a new Siri built on Google Gemini. iOS 27 supports back to the iPhone 11, while macOS Golden Gate fully ends official support for Intel Macs.

On June 5 Jensen Huang confirmed Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron all passed HBM4 certification for Vera Rubin. SK Hynix takes 60-70% of volume and Samsung 25-30%, with shipments starting in Q3.

At Build on June 2 Microsoft unveiled seven MAI models, including reasoning model MAI-Thinking-1 built without OpenAI data. Coding-specialist MAI-Code-1-Flash cuts token use 60% and shipped instantly to Copilot.

Gemini 3.5 Pro, previewed at Google's May I/O, is nearing its formal June launch. It features a 2-million-token context window and a Deep Think reasoning mode, currently in an enterprise-only limited preview.

At Computex on June 1 Jensen Huang declared Nvidia's entry into PC chips with RTX Spark, pairing Blackwell GPUs and an Arm-based CPU. Shares of AMD, Intel and Qualcomm all fell, reflecting intensifying competition.

Bank Indonesia moved up its June 9 meeting to raise the policy rate 25bp to 5.50%. With dollar strength from the Mideast war pushing the rupiah near record lows, it tightened again after a 50bp May hike.

The RBI held the repo rate at 5.25% in June and cut its 2026 growth outlook to 6.6% from 6.9%. The rupee sat near 95.5 per dollar, and foreign outflows have reached 13.7 billion dollars year-to-date.

After a first hike in three years to 7.00% on May 28, the SARB on June 10 formally signaled a further hike this year, citing war risk. It raised its 2026 inflation forecast to 4.4% from 3.7%.

Brazil's central bank cut Selic 25bp to 14.50% in April but narrowed cut prospects with hawkish minutes. Markets raised their year-end view to 13.5% on the Iran oil shock, with the June 17 Copom a turning point.

Argentina sealed a 50-billion-dollar stabilization package with the IMF on June 8 and received a first 15-billion-dollar tranche. It adds to the 20-billion EFF approved in April 2025, while Turkey's lira stayed weak past 46 per dollar.

As of June 8, the DRC reported 598 Bundibugyo Ebola cases and 115 deaths, with Uganda at 19 and 2. WHO and Africa CDC unveiled a 518-million-dollar joint response, and CEPI committed 60 million to three vaccine candidates.

Lilly's triple agonist retatrutide delivered an average 28.3% (about 31.9 kg) weight loss at 80 weeks in the 12mg arm of the TRIUMPH-1 Phase 3. It is the best obesity-drug result yet, with an FDA filing targeted for late 2026.

Novo's CagriSema achieved a 1.8-point HbA1c drop and 13.8% weight loss at 40 weeks in the 2.4mg arm of the REIMAGINE Phase 3 presented at ADA 2026. It met all primary and secondary endpoints, proving combination potential in diabetes.

As of June 4 US measles cases reached 2,030 across 30 outbreaks, with 93% unvaccinated. CIDRAP warned it is 'highly likely' the US loses its elimination status at this fall's PAHO review, ending a 26-year run.

Diabetes trial data for orforglipron, the oral GLP-1 the FDA approved April 1, debuted at ADA 2026 in June. As the first non-peptide oral agent taken without food restrictions, it showed up to 12.4% weight loss at 72 weeks.

After the US struck Iranian air defenses on June 9 in retaliation for the downed Apache, Iran's Revolutionary Guard struck US bases in Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait with missiles and drones on June 10. All three intercepted them, with no casualties.

On June 10 Brent crude spiked to an intraday 94.27 dollars and WTI rose 2% to reclaim the 90-dollar line. News of Iran's strikes on US bases in three states stoked near-term supply fears and widened oil volatility.

With commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed for over 100 days, early-June daily transits fell to 7 ships, down 93% from a normal 100. Vitol's CEO estimated cumulative crude output losses have topped 1 billion barrels.

The Saudi- and Russia-led OPEC+ seven agreed to add 188,000 bpd in July as well, a second straight month at the same scale. But with exports blocked by the blockade, it was effectively symbolic; the next meeting is July 5.

The Asian LNG benchmark JKM rose to 18.89 dollars per MMBtu on June 9, up 7.3% from the prior month's 17.61 average. With the Hormuz blockade slashing Mideast cargo flows, it is up over 52% year-on-year.

At the 2026 World Cup opening ceremony at Estadio Azteca on June 11, Shakira and Burna Boy premiere the official theme 'Dai Dai.' Nine acts including J Balvin, Tyla and Mana fill the stage before kickoff.

'Colony,' directed by Yeon Sang-ho and starring Jun Ji-hyun, drew 4,779,546 cumulative admissions as of June 9, holding the box-office top spot for a 17th straight day. At its current pace, 5 million is all but assured this week.

BOYNEXTDOOR's first full album 'HOME,' released June 8, sold 591,900 copies on day one and debuted at No. 40 on the Billboard 200. Title track 'VIRAL' entered the Melon 100 at No. 5.

Netflix's 'Teach You a Lesson' debuted at No. 1 on the weekly non-English TV chart released June 10, landing in the top 10 in 48 countries. It logged 6.4 million views in four days, Netflix's best 2026 original showing.

'HOME' hit No. 1 on iTunes album charts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, while 'VIRAL' topped singles charts in Colombia, Peru and more. BOYNEXTDOOR thus set a record fifth straight Billboard 200 entry.

Milan Men's Fashion Week SS27 runs June 19-23 with 75 events. Thom Browne joins the official Milan calendar for the first time, and Giorgio Armani takes the final runway, signaling the close of an era.

Paris Men's Fashion Week SS27 runs June 23-28 with 74 brands, opening June 23 with Pharrell Williams's Louis Vuitton. Grace Wales Bonner presents her first Hermes menswear collection on June 27.

The 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund's 10 finalists were set, with first judging and a Nordstrom-backed event on June 10. The top winner receives 300,000 dollars, with results announced at the October 20 gala.

Right after Prada's Versace acquisition, Dario Vitale departs and Alaia's Pieter Mulier is named the new creative director. Mulier, who passed through Dior and Calvin Klein, officially joins July 1.

Former Dior CD Maria Grazia Chiuri presented her first Fendi collection merging womenswear and menswear into one wardrobe. Soft silhouettes blending embroidery, lace and tailoring embody a 'Less I, More Us' philosophy.

Far-right YouTubers who cast the June 3 ballot-paper shortage as 'proof of fraud' earned over 19 million won in SuperChats that day. One channel live-streaming from a Jamsil polling site took in 5.6 million won, ranking No. 1 domestically.

Gyeongnam cyber police raided the provincial office's PR and video rooms on June 9, seizing PCs and phones. The NEC has referred nine people, including Park Wan-su camp aides and officials, to prosecutors over deepfake production.

The NEC's fact-finding committee held its first meeting June 10 and formally confirmed the absence of a response manual. The NEC lowered the ballot-printing floor from 60% to 50% by delegated authority last December, and the shortage hit 91 polling stations.

After police sought an exit ban on US fraud-claimant Moss Tan for spreading false information, the court rejected his request to suspend it on June 4. The bench cited 'public welfare first,' deferring to the need for investigation.

The NEC said it requested takedowns of 10,368 election-related deepfake clips as of May 31, over 25 times the 388 in the 2024 general election. Experts warn the election law fails to govern post-vote spread, a regulatory gap.