Korean Stock & Equity Research

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Five of the world's biggest diesel-exporting regions — the Middle East, Russia, China, the US, and Korea — are all constrained right now, which is why US diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon in September 2026 and why the Trump administration is seriously weighing a diesel export ban. Korea is the odd one out on that list: its refiners aren't short of diesel at all, they're just capped by their own..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline — the one alternative route for its oil exports whenever the Strait of Hormuz is unsafe — was shut down for nine days in September 2026 after a drone strike traced to launch sites inside Iraq, part of a wave of attacks that Saudi officials say has topped nearly 1,000 since February. The pipeline is running again as of September 22, but the deeper problem hasn't ..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Korea is debating whether to restrict deliveries between midnight and 5 a.m., officially framed as a courier health and safety measure — but the proposal comes from the traditional courier union bloc, not from Coupang's own delivery workforce, and it lands at the same moment Naver has chosen to restrict its own dawn delivery to paying members rather than compete for universal coverage. Read toge..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Nike exited the S&P 100 index on September 21, 2026, ending an 18-year run, after its stock collapsed roughly 78% from its November 2021 peak and its market capitalization fell below the threshold blue-chip status requires. The decline has pushed Nike's dividend yield above 4.4% — the highest in the entire Dow Jones Industrial Average — which is exactly the kind of number that makes a stock look..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Korea's $350 billion investment pledge to the US has stalled again, with a September 22, 2026 parliamentary briefing already pushed back once from its original date — and the delay is deliberate. Seoul is holding out for terms closer to what the European Union negotiated than what Japan already accepted, and a Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis analysis of Japan's own $550 billion pledge shows ex..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

South Korea and the US are reportedly nearing a memorandum of understanding — possibly by September 18, 2026 — on a $22.3 billion gas-fired power plant and AI data center complex in Encinal, Texas, the likely first concrete project under Korea's broader $350 billion US investment pledge. The project itself is still unconfirmed and subject to Korea's own parliamentary approval process, but the mo..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

Since taking office in October 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae has combined a record ¥21.3 trillion ($135 billion) stimulus package with an unusually blunt hard line on China over Taiwan — a combination that has already moved currency, tourism, and security dynamics across Northeast Asia in ways that reach directly into Korean markets. None of this is happening to Korea; it's happen..

Global Markets/Supply Chain & Geopolitics

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has previewed a semiconductor tariff structure that would waive duties on chips made in the United States and impose a cost of entry on everything else, using the framework Washington already applied to pharmaceutical imports as the template. Nothing has been finalized, and the exact rates and quotas that would apply to South Korean producers have not been pu..