Stock mania makes gamblers out of Korean retail investors SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) — Tech-savvy and risk-taking South Koreans are learning fast on exotic bets, turning from sluggish cryptocurrency trading to highly leveraged equity investments. An expanding army of mom-and-pop investors is pouring billions of dollars into high-risk leveraged products on offshore cryptocurrency exchange Binance, where they can place bets of up to 150 times on the KOSPI through products banned at home. According to crypto industry sources, Binance began offering KORU July 1, 2026

Mocking Gwangju is no child's play, baseball aspirants learn SEOUL, July 01 (AJP) - "A man is responsible for his ignorance," Milan Kundera once wrote. Young Koreans are now learning that lesson the hard way. Just last week, Starbucks Korea was forced to close stores early nationwide for employee history lessons, absorbing an estimated 2 billion won ($12.8 million) in losses after a promotional campaign on May 18 sparked outrage in Gwangju. Its "Tank Day" promotion of 5/18 tumbler sparked social outrage for its painful associations July 1, 2026

Samsung Elec Q2 to raise the bar on blockbuster earnings SEOUL, June 30 (AJP) - Samsung Electronics is widely expected to deliver another blockbuster quarter when it issues preliminary second-quarter earnings guidance next week, reflecting a 60 to 70 percent surge in mass-market memory prices and explosive demand for lucrative high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in artificial intelligence. According to market consensus compiled by FnGuide, Samsung is projected to post second-quarter revenue of 166.76 trillion won ($120.3 billion) and operating pro June 30, 2026

Chipflation fears cool Korea's chip output SEOUL, June 30 (AJP) - South Korea's sharp pullback in chip output in May is adding to signs that the global memory crunch is no longer confined to data centers, with chipflation from soaring memory prices beginning to strain consumer spending and factory floors. Factory output fell 3.0 percent from the previous month in May, matching its steepest monthly drop in a year, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Tuesday. The index of all-industry production, excluding agriculture June 30, 2026

KOSPI's volatility deepens on fragile foundation SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - South Korea's stock market still looks spectacular despite its recent correction. Underneath, however, the rally is becoming increasingly narrow, speculative and volatile—three characteristics that help explain why the Korean won remains stuck near crisis-era levels despite the soaring benchmark. The latest evidence came Monday as the market's advance-decline ratio (ADR), a widely watched measure of market breadth, remained in oversold territory, highlightin June 29, 2026

Korea's World Cup failure may force football to confront itself SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - The fury over South Korea's abrupt exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup is unlikely to subside with the voluntary exit of the head coach. Instead, it is increasingly building up to a fundamental overhaul of the country's notoriously insular sports bureaucracy. Hong Myung-bo resigned a day after Korea failed to reach the round of 32, but public anger has not stopped with the head coach. Instead, attention has shifted to the Korea Football Association (KFA), whose leade June 29, 2026

Another early exit leaves Korean football searching for answers again SEOUL, June 29 (AJP) - "Sorry cannot make amends for the sense of betrayal for those who held onto hope until the very last minute," said 25-year-old Seoul resident Kim Sung-min. Like millions of South Koreans, Kim spent the weekend after Thursday's devastating defeat to South Africa watching the remaining World Cup matches, clinging to the slim possibility that results elsewhere might yet rescue Korea's campaign. "Our only hope was to see Son Heung-min play in what coul June 29, 2026

Chipflation after Gulf-flation may keep prices sticky SEOUL, June 26 (AJP) -The KOSPI ended Friday at 8,411.21, nearly 8 percent below the 9,000 milestone it celebrated just a week earlier. Friday's rout — the second intraday plunge of more than 8 percent this week — cannot be dismissed simply as a long-overdue correction. The Gulf war inflation scare is fading. Oil has retreated toward pre-war levels and the immediate fear of an energy shock has eased. Yet investors are beginning to confront a second, potentially more persistent i June 26, 2026

Hormuz or not, Korea's petrochemicals glut is far from over SEOUL, June 25 (AJP) - South Korea's petrochemical makers, forgotten and forgiven under the silicon windfall, are biding time with their promised capacity cuts still unfinished while the Middle East drags on and the country's single largest petrochemical project prepares to flood the market with fresh supply. Chinese overcapacity has been swamping Asia with cheap basic chemicals, with or without disruption from the Middle East and stranded shipments at the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. June 25, 2026

Korea's migration to developed status rejected and the won is why SEOUL, June 24 (AJP) - The stock market rebounded, but the Korean won slipped deeper toward crisis-era lows after South Korea once again failed to make MSCI's developed-market watchlist, a sober reminder that the currency - not the equities - is the stumbling block to an upgrade. The KOSPI has quadrupled over the past 18 months to become one of the world's best-performing equity markets since 2025, but its rally alone was not enough. For years, Seoul has tried to secure MSCI develope June 24, 2026