Daily Woody Weekly | Oct 18, 2026 — Kospi's 14.5% Week
Korea's benchmark index fell on every trading day from Monday through Thursday. It ended the week at 5,668.05, down 957.88 points, or 14.46%, from the previous Thursday's close. Markets had been shut on Friday, Oct. 9, for Hangeul Day.
The selling sharpened on Tuesday, after Chinese memory maker CXMT outlined plans for a next-generation server DRAM. A "sidecar" curb on program selling was triggered at 9:47 a.m. Samsung Electronics closed down 7.39% and SK Hynix 10.09%, and the Kospi fell 5.46%. Foreign investors sold a net 4.5 trillion won ($3.4 billion) that day, the most since July 28, the Korea Economic Daily reported.
On Wednesday night, Seoul time, the US Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 3.7% from a year earlier in September, above the 3.6% economists expected. Core inflation came in at 2.6%, also a tenth of a point above forecasts. Gasoline rose 9.1% in a month and accounted for more than half of the increase. The Wall Street Journal reported that traders saw roughly even odds of a Federal Reserve hike this month.
Thursday brought the week's largest loss. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index had dropped 4.3% overnight as inflation worries hit AI-linked stocks. The Kospi fell as much as 9.29%, and at 12:38 p.m. a circuit breaker halted trading for 20 minutes, the 10th this year and the 16th in the index's history, Reuters reported. The Kosdaq had been halted 15 minutes earlier.
The Kospi closed down 7.57% at 5,554.22, its lowest close since April 7 and a seventh straight loss, the longest streak since September 2024. Samsung fell 9.5% and SK Hynix 11.1%. Mixo Das, J.P. Morgan's head of Korea equity strategy, told Reuters the market "is struggling to find a new buyer" after Samsung's and SK Hynix's buyback programs had run their course.
The index rebounded 2.05% on Friday, its first gain in eight sessions, and foreign investors turned net buyers. Their net purchases came to only about 340 billion won ($256 million), and they kept selling on the Kosdaq; an analyst quoted by Newspim said flows had not yet recovered. The won strengthened 13.2 won to 1,331.4 per dollar that day, its strongest level since Oct. 2, 2024, according to Korea Report and Etoday. Over the week as a whole, the won strengthened by 7.1 won per dollar even as the Kospi lost more than 14%.
Korea has two automatic brakes. A sidecar briefly suspends computer-driven program orders when futures swing sharply. A circuit breaker is stronger: if the index stays down 8% from the prior close for one minute, all trading stops for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute call auction.
From its Oct. 2 close of 7,003.74 to Thursday's close, the Kospi lost 20.7% in seven trading sessions. By Tuesday, foreign investors' net selling of Kospi shares this year had passed 200 trillion won ($150 billion), Segye Ilbo reported.
| Indicator | Close, Oct. 16 | Weekly change |
|---|---|---|
| Kospi | 5,668.05 | −957.88 (−14.46%) |
| Kosdaq | 794.78 | −97.49 (−10.93%) |
| Won per dollar | 1,331.4 | −7.1 (won stronger) |
| Samsung Electronics | 215,500 won | −17.7% |
| SK Hynix | 1,272,000 won | −24.3% |
On Monday the Korea Customs Service reported that exports in the first 10 days of October reached $26.1 billion, up 102% from a year earlier and a record for the period. Chip exports rose 170.9% to $12.1 billion, nearly half of the total. Shipments to China rose 167% to $7.59 billion and those to the United States 159.9% to $3.65 billion.
The 102% headline includes a calendar effect. This year's period had 5.5 working days, two more than last year's. On a per-day basis, exports averaged $4.75 billion, up 28.5%. That figure is the better gauge of how fast trade actually grew.
On Tuesday the International Monetary Fund raised its 2026 growth forecast for Korea to 3.3% from 2.6% in July, and its 2027 forecast to 2.8% from 2.5%. Both world growth (3.1%) and the advanced-economy average (2.1%) now sit below Korea's projected rate. The fund said external demand for semiconductors "supersedes the negative impact of the war" in the Middle East.
Yonhap reported that the IMF counted Korea and Taiwan as accounting for 62% of net trade in AI computer hardware. The fund also put Korea's 2026 GDP per capita at $43,512, just behind Taiwan's $43,951. Its forecast assumes the Strait of Hormuz reopens from next March.
On Oct. 2 Korea abolished its Prosecutors' Office after 78 years. Investigations of major crimes moved to a new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency under the interior ministry, while a separate Public Prosecution Service now handles indictments. The agency launched without a chief.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said Lim Eun-jung, head of the agency's Gwangju branch, would face an internal inspection, and he sent the formal order on Monday. Lim had publicly criticized the nominee for chief, Kim Ji-yong, a former senior prosecutor. Yun said he would examine whether she had used her post to influence a presidential appointment. The agency opened the inspection, its first, the same day.
At Kim's confirmation hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers pressed him over his signature on a 2020 statement opposing disciplinary action against Yoon, then prosecutor general, and over two earlier cases. Some lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party joined the opposition in questioning his suitability, and the Rebuilding Korea Party formally opposed him. On Thursday the committee adopted a report listing both favorable and unfavorable views.
President Lee Jae Myung approved the appointment the same day, 38 days after Yun recommended Kim. Critics in Lee's own camp had called Kim too close to former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Lee's office said additional vetting found those claims untrue, and Lee had argued online that barring all former prosecutors would cripple the agency.
On Friday, at the Seoul High Court, the insurrection special counsel led by Cho Eun-suk asked for a 30-year sentence for Yoon on appeal, matching the term a lower court imposed. Yoon is accused of ordering military drones into Pyongyang around October 2024 to provoke the North and build a pretext for his December 2024 martial law declaration.
The counsel also sought 30 years for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, 20 years for former counterintelligence commander Yeo In-hyung and five years for former drone commander Kim Yong-dae. The lower court had given Yoon and Kim Yong-hyun 30 years each, Yeo 15 years and Kim Yong-dae a suspended three-year term.
The prosecution called the offense graver than the insurrection itself. Yoon maintained that the operation was a legitimate response to North Korean trash balloons. The appeals ruling is due Dec. 4. In a separate case, Yoon was sentenced to life in prison in February for leading an insurrection; that case is now on appeal.
In a separate courtroom the same day, the Comprehensive Special Counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young sought four years for Kim Dae-ki, Yoon's former chief of staff. The team accuses him and three other officials of diverting 2.09 billion won ($1.57 million) in interior ministry funds to pay an unlicensed contractor for work on the presidential residence. The hearing had been postponed for two weeks over whether prosecutors seconded to the team could still appear in court after the Oct. 2 overhaul. The defendants denied the charges, and Kim's side said the funds had been transferred lawfully. A verdict is due Nov. 27.
Early this month several Korean banks disclosed data breaches. At Shinhan Bank, attackers bypassed authentication on a portal used by outside loan brokers and exposed data on about 25,000 customers. KB Kookmin Bank lost data on 119 customers and Hana Bank on 89. Sources told Yonhap the Shinhan attackers, suspected to be overseas, used advanced AI tools.
On Friday a lawmaker from the opposition People Power Party, Park Dae-chul, released regulator data. Shinhan's information-security budget this year is 40.59 billion won ($30.5 million), the smallest among the five largest banks and 10.4% below last year. Security makes up 9.1% of its IT budget, also the lowest. KB Kookmin budgets 86.08 billion won ($64.7 million).
The same day, Newspim pointed to a sanction Shinhan had received in China four months before the breach at home; the sanction had been reported in July. Earlier this year the Beijing branch of China's central bank fined Shinhan's China unit about 500 million won ($376,000) for violations including financial statistics and account management, and separately penalized it over network and information security rules.
The heads of the five biggest banks are scheduled to testify at the parliamentary audit of the Financial Supervisory Service on Monday.
Statistics released Friday showed employment rose by 113,000 from a year earlier to 29.27 million, slower than August's gain of 184,000. Health care and social services added 207,000 jobs, and manufacturing added 16,000, its first increase since June 2024. Restaurants and lodging shed 97,000.
Employment among people aged 15 to 29 fell by 147,000, the 47th straight monthly decline. Their employment rate dropped 1.1 points to 44.0%, and their jobless rate rose to 5.4%.
On Friday, France and Germany confirmed a joint position on Europe's car industry, which RTÉ said accounts for 13 million jobs and 7% of the bloc's GDP. France had pushed to keep preferential treatment within the EU, while Germany wanted trading partners such as Britain included.
According to the Financial Times, as relayed by Newspim, Britain would join the "Made in Europe" public procurement rules, subject to a condition related to China. Since late 2024 the EU has charged Chinese electric vehicles its standard 10% duty plus countervailing duties of up to 35.3 points. Japan, South Korea and Turkey, which had also sought access, would remain outside.
The plan also further relaxes CO2 rules for new cars. Trade outlet Just Auto said the draft was not yet final, and a British official noted that a European process still lies ahead.
The war that began on Feb. 28 is in its eighth month. Last week President Trump said he would not strike Iran before the US midterm elections but would keep its ports under blockade.
On Oct. 11, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the US reply to Tehran's conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz was insufficient: Washington had accepted some points and left others unclear. We found no announcement of progress during the week. In Tehran, hard-line lawmakers had earlier filed a motion to impeach Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over contacts with a US envoy in New York.
Over the previous weekend, US Central Command said that since the blockade resumed on July 14 it had disabled four commercial vessels and turned back 135. On Friday, Reuters reported, citing shipping data, that Iran had still moved some LPG and jet fuel out since July.
- Mon., Oct. 19 Heads of Korea's five largest banks testify at the parliamentary audit of the Financial Supervisory Service. China releases third-quarter GDP.
- Thu., Oct. 22 Bank of Korea rate decision; the policy rate stands at 3.00%. Parliament's final audit of financial regulators is held the same day.
- During the week Korea's four largest financial groups begin reporting third-quarter results.
- Oct. 27–28 (following week) US Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
Anthropic's Claude AI is used as a tool in gathering, analyzing and editing the news. Readers are encouraged to use their own judgment and cross-check.
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