KOSPI Plunges 7.57% Two Ships Sink Near Hormuz

TSMC's third-quarter consolidated revenue was NT$1.4942 trillion and net income NT$763 billion, a quarterly record. Revenue rose 50.9% year on year, and 2nm accounted for 8% of the total.

A Delaware jury found that Arm breached its architecture license agreement with Qualcomm on October 13 (local time). Damages were set at $1 per claim, or $2 in total.

Google launched Universal Cart on October 15 for US users, in Search and the Gemini app. Shoppers can put products from multiple retailers in one cart and receive price-drop alerts.

Amazon's Bee unveiled two new products: Frontier at $74.99 and Eclipse at $99.99. Frontier is on sale on Amazon and features IP67 water resistance and up to 7 days of battery life.

On the 15th, KOSPI fell 454.59 points to close at 5554.22, and KOSDAQ fell 63.06 points to 760.82. The won-dollar exchange rate rose 6.3 won to 1344.6 won.

Foreigners net-sold 17.8345 trillion won of KOSPI shares in October and sold 3.6463 trillion won on the 15th. They net-sold 4.8156 trillion won of Samsung Electronics and 9.2902 trillion won of SK hynix.

On the 15th, the KOSPI sell-side sidecar triggered at 9:07:42 a.m. and the KOSDAQ one at 9:12:23 a.m. US September CPI rose 3.7%, above the 3.6% forecast, and the Nasdaq fell 1.88%.

On the 14th, the US 10-year Treasury yield rose intraday to 5.33% and the 2-year to 4.95%. According to the CME FedWatch tool, the probability of a rate hike on October 28 rose from 21.6% to 39.3%.

According to the Bank of Korea, bank household loans rose by about 600 billion won in September, to a balance of about 1,198.9 trillion won. The increase narrowed from 5.5 trillion won in July and 3.5 trillion won in August, and mortgage loans rose 2.9 trillion won.

KOSPI fell 454.59 points (7.57%) to close at 5554.22 on the 15th, giving up the 5600 level for the first time in two and a half months. KOSDAQ fell 63.06 points (7.65%) to end at 760.82.

On the 14th (local time), the Nasdaq fell 1.88% to 26,692.87 and the S&P 500 fell 1.11% to 7,718.94. September CPI rose 3.7% year on year, above the 3.6% forecast.

The won-dollar exchange rate closed at 1344.6 on the 15th, up 6.3 won from the previous day. As of 3:28 p.m., the dollar index stood at 102.13, lower than 102.55 the previous day.

As of 10:30 a.m. on the 15th, bitcoin was about $81,000, down 1.68% over 24 hours. Ethereum fell 3.18% and XRP fell 3.02%. The Fear and Greed Index stood at 50.

At 9:22 a.m. on the 15th, Samsung Electronics fell 6.90% to 216,000 won and SK hynix fell 8.95% to 1,292,000 won. A KOSPI sell-side sidecar was triggered at 9:05 a.m.

In the prior US session, Micron fell 4.08%, Nvidia 3.16% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 4.3%. Hana Securities cited the 3.7% rise in September CPI among the factors weighing on sentiment.

TSMC disclosed third-quarter revenue of NT$1.4942 trillion, net income of NT$763 billion and a gross margin of 66.4%. Its fourth-quarter revenue guidance is $52.3 billion to $54.3 billion.

Meritz Securities kept its Buy rating on LG Energy Solution in a report on the 15th and raised its target price from 440,000 won to 510,000 won. Whether the company reaches the remaining 60 GWh of US ESS orders by year-end was cited as a key focus.

Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said the likelihood of escalation on all fronts has grown ahead of the October 27 general election. Visiting the Central Command in the West Bank, he said settler violence must also be stamped out.

According to a Guardian report, Israel has not yet approved construction of the Gaza international force base that the Peace Council ordered in August. The roughly 150-person base is expected to be approved after the October 27 election, sources said.

The Gaza Administrative Committee (NCAG) and Germany's GIZ signed a memorandum of understanding on October 14 to set up a framework for Gaza's reconstruction. GIZ will provide technical expertise and advisory support to the committee's planning and implementation teams.

Citing Reuters, reports said a container ship and a bulk carrier sank within 24 hours after being hit by projectiles in separate incidents. One crew member died and most were evacuated. Shipping traffic through the strait has dropped sharply.

US Central Command said Iran's Revolutionary Guard struck the container ship M/V GFS Pride and the vessel sank while under tow. It said more than 40 ships have passed through Hormuz over the past 24 hours.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Ukraine tried to launch a large-scale attack on the Ryazan refinery. Zelensky told the FT he would no longer abide by the energy truce unilaterally announced by Trump and would resume strikes on refineries.

KCNA reported that North Korea test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles off its east coast on the 14th. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said one was fired from a vertical launch tube and the other from a torpedo tube.

In a post-flight analysis, NASA said the heat shield performed as expected. Areas with cracks or char loss fell from 103 on Artemis I to 9, and Orion splashed down within 0.59 miles of its target point.

SpaceX Dragon docked with the Harmony module's space-facing port on October 15. It was the 35th commercial resupply mission, carrying more than 6,300 pounds of food, equipment and research materials, including equipment for making artificial retinas.

NASA said it is using satellites to observe an El Niño that began with a Kelvin wave detected near Micronesia in January. NOAA put the probability that this will be the strongest El Niño since 1950 at 83%.

NASA said a second set of roll-out solar arrays (IROSA) was aboard the 35th commercial resupply mission. Six were installed in 2021 to 2023, and with eight in total, station power will rise by more than 160 kW.

The Prosecutorial Human Rights Future Committee received the investigative teams' results on the 15th for three cases: Wirye new-town, statistics manipulation and the West Sea civil servant shooting. The teams said there were procedural faults but that the decision to indict was not itself illegal.

At the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency audit on the 15th, lawmakers said the investigation into Rep. Han Dong-hoon's daughter was limited to written questioning with no search and seizure. Rep. Kim Jae-seop was questioned for 16 hours and 46 minutes. Police said that time included breaks and time to review records.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office set up two divisions to review cases that police have decided not to refer or have suspended. Nine prosecutors were assigned, including three deputy division heads and six prosecutors with 10 or more years of experience. The office said there is no limit on re-investigation requests.

At the Judiciary Committee audit on the 15th, the Defense Ministry said it would revise the military police investigation rules so that investigative directions are given in writing. The military prosecutors' arrest warrant approval rate over the past year was 66%, down 19 percentage points from 85% the previous year.

Cho Won-cheol, head of the Ministry of Government Legislation, said at the National Assembly Judiciary Committee audit on the 15th that if the nomination power is not exercised and the appointment of Supreme Court justices and court operations are disrupted, the chief justice has failed to fulfill a constitutional duty.

Democratic Party Rep. Kim Dong-a called the refusal to re-nominate a dereliction of duty, while Park Hyung-soo, the People Power Party's committee secretary, countered that no provision anywhere in the Constitution gives the president the power to request re-nomination.

Cho Won-cheol agreed with the courts' view that prosecution under Article 84 of the Constitution includes maintaining the indictment, citing the principle of state prosecution in the Criminal Procedure Act, according to Inews24.

The Jeju District Court's Criminal Division 1 overturned a first-instance sentence of six months in prison, suspended for one year, for a man in his 20s charged with insulting four superiors 12 times, and acquitted him. The Supreme Court en banc changed the precedent in July.

At the audit on the 15th, Rep. Lee Woo-yong said applications for policy funds for greenhouse gas reduction equipment reached the 130 billion won cap within 32 minutes. 128 applications came from a single IP address, and he called for improvements to the operating rules.

At the audit on the 15th, Rep. Eo Ki-gu said K-water invested 493.2 billion won in six overseas projects over the past 10 years but recovered only 27.2 billion won. He demanded a report on recovery plans.

At the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee audit on the 15th, ruling and opposition parties clashed over the submission of a self-introduction from Nam Kwang-woo, president of the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute. Chairman Kim Jung-ho halted the audit at 11:10 a.m.

The Korea Meteorological Administration forecasts morning lows of 7 to 16 degrees and daytime highs of 22 to 26 degrees on the 16th. Most of the country will see a temperature gap of around 15 degrees, and northeastern Gyeonggi is expected to get 5 to 10 mm of rain on the 15th and 16th.

The Korean Medical Association and the Korean Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine denounced police's search of the Ajou University Hospital pediatric emergency center at a press conference on the 15th at the National Assembly. They demanded that investigation guidelines be established and an apology be issued.

Lee Ji-sook, head of the Ajou University Hospital pediatric emergency center, said at a National Assembly briefing on the 15th that investigation guidelines reflecting emergency situations are needed. Police said there was no interference with medical treatment.

At a session of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine's autumn conference on the 15th, the society explained that the revised Emergency Medical Service Act aims to split individual doctors' responsibility into a regional transfer system. A Ministry of Health and Welfare official said the ministry would monitor the situation.

Park Hyun-jun, training director of the Korean Urological Association, warned at a press briefing on the 15th that some hospitals are losing their status as residency hospitals because faculty are leaving. At one non-capital-area hospital, one resident became subject to mobile training.

Iranian director Majid Majidi received the grand prize at the Busan Awards for his film 'Bread and Book.' The award was presented at 6 p.m. on the 15th at the Busan Cinema Center in Haeundae-gu, Busan, during the closing ceremony of the 31st Busan International Film Festival.

At the closing ceremony of the 31st Busan International Film Festival, director Li Yunchan received the directing award, and the news report described it as the first directing award in 20 years. Zhou Xun and Himeno Kashun won acting awards.

The 16th Beautiful Artist Awards were held on the 15th at Stage28 in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. An Philip, the younger son of the late actor An Sung-ki, accepted the award on his behalf in the Good People Artist category, and director Park Chan-wook attended as a presenter.

LG beat Doosan 4-1 in the wild card decider at Jamsil. Austin hit a first-inning two-run homer to earn MVP honors, and LG will open the semi-playoffs against third-place KIA in Gwangju on the 17th.

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Dodgers 6-2 in Game 3 of the NLCS on the 14th. After winning Game 1 2-1 and Game 2 7-4, Milwaukee has three straight wins, and the Dodgers will be eliminated with one more loss.

The number of financial firms hit by hacking has been counted at 16, with about 100,000 records leaked. At a second emergency meeting on the 14th, inspections of 555 financial firms found weak security at 130, and the cause has not yet been confirmed.

Information on about 250 OK Savings Bank customers leaked through the loan application service on its website. The initial count of 183 rose by 67 after a joint investigation with two external security firms. The attack ran from the evening of the 11th into the early hours of the 12th.

As of September this year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family had blocked 7,208 cyberattack attempts, 9.4 times the 769 blocked in all of 2023. Three staff work in information security and monitoring. Rep. Lim Jong-deuk called for stronger monitoring capacity and more specialist staff.

The AMP feature flaw CVE-2026-76519 (CVSS 9.8) in Cisco Secure Email Gateway is being actively exploited. An unauthenticated remote attacker can execute commands with root privileges. CISA has directed federal agencies to patch by October 17.

Wearable robotics company Hurotics raised a 25 billion won Series A led by Artinum Investment. Daewoong, Naver and Lotte joined as strategic investors, and cumulative funding now exceeds 33.5 billion won.

Neutral-atom quantum computing startup Occuty raised a 14 billion won pre-Series A led by DSC Investment. Kakao Ventures and BluePoint Partners took part in the follow-on investment.

Caredoc said it has secured more than 150 billion won in total, including about 53 billion won in cumulative investment including its Series C, and over 100 billion won in senior housing project financing. It plans additional investment and an IPO.

The Ventures made a seed investment in Smoking Tiger, a US cafe and bakery with Korean-style products. The amount was not disclosed. Its 2025 revenue was $6.24 million, up about 39% from $4.5 million the previous year.

On the 14th (local time), WTI rose $0.95 (1.01%) to $95.09 per barrel and Brent rose $0.37 (0.35%) to $106.06. WTI has risen for five straight trading days.

Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked Saudi Aramco's headquarters, and Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said a small fire had broken out. Iran claimed it is using a new tactic of targeting ships.

In its October report, the IEA said diesel supply shortages will persist until 2027. It said world oil demand will fall by 2.6 million barrels per day in 2026 and supply by 5.8 million barrels per day.

US September CPI rose 3.7% year on year, above the 3.6% market forecast. On the 14th, spot gold fell 1.8% to $4,083.94 per ounce, down for the third straight trading day.

Netflix will cut about 1,000 employees worldwide, about 6% of its staff. Cuts are centered on product, technology, legal and HR, and are the largest since 2022. Third-quarter earnings will be announced on October 20.

In Nielsen The Gauge Korea's August figures, YouTube accounted for 10.5% of TV viewing time, up from 9.1% in June. The combined share of other streaming services, including Netflix, Tving and Wavve, was 7.4%.

In Consumer Insight's third-week October survey (October 10 to 11, 500 respondents per metric), Netflix variety show Daehwanjang Gian 2 ranked first at 23%. Among new dramas, Genie TV's Love Doctor had the highest share at 7%.

An HR manager at Next Games, the Finnish mobile game developer owned by Netflix, said on LinkedIn that they are leaving due to the layoffs. Netflix has not disclosed the scale of cuts in its games division.