Korean Stock & Equity Research

Macro & Policy/Currency & Rates

The Fed held rates steady at its latest FOMC meeting, but the more consequential story wasn't the vote itself — it was what Chair Kevin Warsh didn't say. In a marked departure from the Powell era, Warsh offered no forward hints on the Fed's next move, signaling a deliberate return to the ambiguous "Fed speak" of the Greenspan era. For markets that have spent over a decade trading off explicit Fe..

Macro & Policy/Currency & Rates

In June, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge — Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) — fell for the first time in six years, easing pressure on policymakers just as hawkish dissent was building within the FOMC. To understand why this single data point matters so much, it helps to know where PCE came from in the first place: a metric born not purely out of economic theory, but out of a 1990s fi..

Macro & Policy/Currency & Rates

The Korean Won staged a sharp appreciation in July 2026, with USD/KRW falling from above 1,550 to around 1,435 in a matter of weeks. On the surface, this might look like a simple story of Dollar weakness — but the data tells a more layered story involving delayed trade surplus flows, a reversal in foreign equity positioning, and a Bank of Korea rate hike, all converging within the same short win..

Macro & Policy/Currency & Rates

The Japanese Yen carry trade is one of the most influential — and most dangerous — mechanisms in global financial markets. When it unwinds suddenly, it has historically triggered some of the sharpest volatility spikes on record, from the collapse of LTCM in 1998 to turmoil during the 2008 financial crisis. Understanding how the carry trade works, and why recent US-Japan policy moves have reignit..