KOSPI closes down 3.52% BOK holds base rate

Rep. Choi Eun-seok asked FSC Chair Lee Eog-weon who bears responsibility, and FSS Governor Lee Chan-jin explained the review was strict over the 15-day legal minimum. Chair Lee said his heart is heavy.

At the Jeju Provincial Police audit on the 22nd, Chief Kim Byung-chan apologized for failing to meet public expectations in three cases. He said two staff are now permanently secured for the night missing-persons team and veteran officers now close cases.

A woman in her 40s was urgently arrested on suspicion of killing her mother in her 60s, and she called 112 herself. A court issued an arrest warrant for a man in his 70s over fires at two Yeoksam-dong buildings that injured 19.

The court ruled 8-1 that the Criminal Act provision punishing killing a lineal ascendant with death, life or at least seven years' imprisonment is constitutional. In July 2013 it was upheld 7-2. Justice Ma Eun-hyuk dissented.

Seoul High Court Civil Division 16-1 dismissed a 168.2 billion won unjust-enrichment claim filed by nine Lone Star-related entities against the government and Seoul City. The Supreme Court last April held that the refund right belongs to the withholding agent.

Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 30 ruled against Youngpoong in its suit against Korea Zinc directors including Chairman Choi Yun-beom. The court found no breach of duty by the directors, and Youngpoong and MBK Partners said they will appeal immediately.

The Bank of Korea's Monetary Policy Board held the base rate at 3.00% on the 22nd. The hold follows two consecutive hikes in July and August. News1 published the full text of the decision.

On the 22nd the KRW/USD rate closed at 1,324.2 won, down 1.0 won from the prior session. Money Today reported that new yearly lows have continued for five straight sessions.

Per Bank of Korea ECOS data (as of 15:30 on the 22nd), the 3-year Treasury yield was 3.840%, the 5-year 3.983%, 3-year AA- corporate bonds 4.524%, and the 91-day CD 3.260%.

On the 22nd the KOSPI fell 201.89 points (3.52%) to close at 5533.77. The KOSDAQ fell 28.66 points (3.62%) to close at 764.10, while Samsung Electronics dropped 4.03% and SK hynix 5.72%.

On the 22nd (US time) the S&P 500 fell 1.21% to 7,663.45 and the Nasdaq fell 2.60% to 26,008.86. The Dow rose 0.02% to 52,867.98. Meta fell about 7% to 648.85.

Revenue of 6.277 trillion won fell 10% year over year and rose 12% quarter over quarter. Operating profit fell 42% year over year, and the company cited exchange rates, chip inflation and weak premium demand.

The contract is worth 26.8256 billion won, 6.7% of last year's consolidated revenue. The contract period runs from October 21, 2026 to October 22, 2029, according to the disclosure.

Jusung Corporation will absorb its wholly owned subsidiary RPT Korea, with a merger date of December 28, 2026. The merger ratio is 1 to 0 and no new shares will be issued, per the disclosure.

Citing Bloomberg, TechCrunch reported DeepSeek raised about $15 billion (about 100 billion yuan). In June it raised more than $7 billion at a $50 billion valuation, and investors such as CATL and Tencent were mentioned.

New York-based fintech Coast raised $35 million in growth equity. Thomvest Ventures led, with Intuit and Small World Capital joining as new investors. The company did not disclose its valuation.

Claude Duet is a research-preview agent based on Opus 5.5. US Pro and Max subscribers join via a waitlist, and it uses more than 6,000 connectors and plugins. It says it asks the user before sending messages or making payments.

The combined capacity increase across the IBIDEN, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Unimicron substrate deals is given as 2.5x over three years. Amkor will expand advanced packaging capacity by over 300% by end-2028, and KYEC receives a $1.1 billion advance payment.

Operating income was $718 million and R&D was $2.76 billion. Revenue of $28.05 billion was flat year over year, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.48 beat the $0.45 consensus. Capital expenditure was $4.73 billion.

CEO John Furner announced it on October 21 at the Masters of Scale summit. Approved agents search inventory and buy through an MCP server, with per-agent spending limits and per-purchase approval conditions.

PHP developers released an emergency update on October 21 (local time) fixing two critical flaws. It was reported as 9.2 under CVSS 4.0, allowing malicious code execution or system takeover without authentication.

AhnLab estimated about 110,000 domestic servers may run vulnerable PHP versions. The Ministry of Science and ICT and KISA raised the private-sector cyber crisis alert from Attention to Caution from noon on the 22nd.

The Korea Media and Communications Commission asked to raise the broadcasting fund's share of spectrum allocation fees from 45% to 46-47%. Per Rep. Han Joon-ho, working-level talks happened once, and the allocation-ratio notice expires at the end of this year.

Reports totaled 657 in the roughly 1 year 7 months before repeal and 1,955 in the roughly 1 year 2 months after. Fines were 87 million won across 19 retailers, and Chair Kim Jong-chul said he will bring forward the enforcement date.

Rep. Hwang Jung-ah's office found 1,144 albumin-related broadcasts in the last three years: TV Chosun 328, Channel A 323, JTBC 243 and MBN 196. The broadcast standards commission voted a statutory 'caution' sanction on the four cable news channels.

The Kremlin said that after Putin met US envoy Steve Witkoff, US-mediated talks would resume as early as next month. Zelensky said he supports trilateral talks in early November.

With talks stalled, Iran said the US must lift its naval blockade and show willingness to end the war diplomatically. The New York Times reported US and Israeli forces have prepared strike plans for after the midterm elections.

Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia signed a defense cooperation agreement on Wednesday. Canadian PM Carney visits Turkey on Thursday, the first bilateral visit by a Canadian leader.

Berlin summoned Iran's ambassador after a German court convicted two men of spying for Iran. German regulator BaFin revoked the license of Bank Saderat's Hamburg branch.

President Zelensky said Russia fired three cluster-warhead ballistic missiles at Kyiv overnight on the 21st-22nd, killing at least two and injuring 34. Five of the injured were children.

Kremlin aide Ushakov said that after Putin met US envoy Witkoff, Russia agreed in principle to resume Russia-US-Ukraine trilateral talks after November 10.

Citing an IRGC navy statement, Iranian state TV reported that four tankers were attacked and burned and three were immobilized by mines. AP said the figures were unconfirmed.

Ukraine's General Staff claimed 2,250 Russian troops were killed or seriously wounded in the 24 hours of October 21-22. The article described this as a Ukrainian claim.

NASA's October 22 APOD presented an illustration of WD J1330+6435 made by Mark Garlick with the University of Warwick. Some white dwarfs may be yellow, green, teal, pink or purple, it says.

Ultomiris (ravulizumab) received accelerated approval for proteinuria reduction in adults with primary IgA nephropathy. In the 34-week interim analysis of the Phase 3 I CAN trial, the proteinuria ratio fell 46.6% versus 5.6% for placebo.

GSK's Jemperli (dostarlimab) received accelerated approval for adults with stage II-III MSI-H or dMMR locally advanced rectal cancer. In the AZUR-1 trial, 47% of 116 evaluable patients maintained a clinical complete response for 12 months.

The FDA approved berotralstat (Orladeyo) 150mg oral pellets as a second formulation for preventing hereditary angioedema attacks in patients 12 and older. BioCryst said the approval rests on no new efficacy data.

The Presidential Commission on Climate Crisis held an investor briefing at Post Tower in Seoul on the 22nd. Eight companies presented plans for 10 international mitigation projects in renewables, transport, forestry and waste.

IPS reported that WMO regards 2015-2025 as the 11 hottest years on record, and UNICEF said climate disasters disrupted schooling for more than 171 million students in 2025.

Yahoo Finance said Brent was already above $112 on the morning of the 22nd and is now above $111 a barrel. It reported this raises inflation worries and reduces the appeal of risk assets such as crypto.

Topstar News reported that in pre-market trading on the 22nd the WTI December contract rose more than 2% from the prior close to near $99 a barrel, and Brent also rose more than 2%. Concern over Middle East military tension was cited.

The film The Assassin(s) held No.1 among Korean films for a 22nd straight day with 3,281,594 cumulative admissions as of 7 a.m. on the 21st. Directed by Hur Jin-ho, it opened the 37th Singapore International Film Festival on the 21st.

On the 21st the Chiikawa movie kept No.1 with 28,985 daily and 1,904,592 cumulative admissions. Yeon Sang-ho's Lost Paradise opened that day with about 20,600, taking No.2 overall and No.1 among Korean films.

In Champions League Matchday 3 on the 21st, Como beat Manchester United 4-1. Nico Paz scored twice, with Douvikas and Ramon also scoring. United's goal came from Zirkzee.

Bayern and Arsenal drew 2-2 in Champions League Matchday 3 on the 21st. Davies and Kane (penalty) scored for Bayern, and Eze and Rice for Arsenal.