Hanwha Investment Securities has acquired 1.361 million additional Dunamu shares from Kakao Investment for approximately KRW 597.8 billion (~$430M), raising its total stake from 5.94% to 9.84% and becoming the company's third-largest shareholder. Dunamu operates Upbit, South Korea's dominant crypto exchange, and the deal advances Hanwha's goal of building a global RWA (Real World Asset) tokenization hub.
The 30-year US Treasury yield surged to 5.17%—briefly touching 5.20%—its highest level since 2007, as Iran-driven energy inflation fears pushed traders to price in a greater-than-50% chance of a Federal Reserve rate hike by December 2026. WTI crude fell ~2% to $102 on Trump's Iran peace pledge, but bond market stress persists as the 10-year yield also hit a 16-month high of 4.687%.
German food delivery group Delivery Hero is running a formal sale process for its South Korean unit Woowa Brothers (Baemin), with a valuation of up to ₩8 trillion ($6 billion). Baemin generates approximately 20% of DH's ~₩25 trillion annual revenue and ₩600 billion in annual operating profit, implying an EV/EBIT multiple of roughly 13x. Naver (035420.KS), previously considered the frontrunner, has signaled it will not participate; Uber, Alibaba, and DoorDash have been approached but no binding bids have been made.
Foreign investors sold a net ₩7.34 trillion from Korean equities on May 19, extending their streak to nine consecutive sessions of net selling and pushing total outflows past ₩48 trillion since May 7. The KOSPI fell 3.25% to 7,271.66 — intraday the index shed as much as 4.98% — dragged by semiconductor sector weakness after Micron ($MU) shed 5.95% and SanDisk ($SNDK) 5.3% in New York overnight. Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) led large-cap declines with an 8.9% drop.
US 30-year Treasury yields hit 5.11%, clearing the psychologically key 5% level, while the 10-year note reached 4.6% intraday before settling near 4.577%. The S&P 500 fell 1.24% to 7,408.50 as technology stocks led declines — Nvidia $NVDA off 4.42%, Intel $INTC down 6.18%. Deutsche Bank flagged the post-earnings lull and Middle East tensions as catalysts for defensive positioning.
KOSPI 200 futures plunged 5.13% to 1,112.46 at 09:19 KST on May 18, triggering the sell-side sidecar for the second consecutive session. The KOSPI cash index recovered from an intraday low of -4.7% to close at 7,516.04 (+0.31%), as domestic retail buyers absorbed over KRW 2.5 trillion in foreign selling. The USD/KRW rate crossed 1,502, re-breaching the 1,500 level, with foreign investors recording eight straight days of net selling totaling over KRW 4 trillion.
OpenAI has launched a personal finance preview for ChatGPT Pro users in the US. By connecting bank accounts via Plaid, users receive a spending dashboard and AI-driven financial advice based on their actual transaction data.
G7 finance ministers are meeting in Paris on May 18–19 as the prolonged Strait of Hormuz closure drives global oil inventories toward all-time lows by the end of May, according to UBS. The gathering comes as long-term borrowing costs surge across G7 economies and Eurogroup head Pascal Donohoe called opening the Strait 'of utmost importance.'
A majority of SpaceX shareholders have approved a board-recommended 5-for-1 stock split, Bloomberg reported, in a move widely read as an IPO preparatory step for one of the world's most valuable private companies. The announcement follows Cerebras's blockbuster +70% IPO debut, intensifying investor anticipation for the SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic public listings.
Fed funds futures markets have shifted to price in a rate hike — not a cut — as the next move by the Federal Reserve, with December the earliest expected date. The Survey of Professional Forecasters from the Philadelphia Fed now projects Q2 CPI at 6%, more than double its 2.7% forecast from three months ago. The 30-year Treasury yield has crossed 5.1%, and newly installed Fed Chair Kevin Warsh faces immediate internal pressure on the direction of policy.
AI chip startup Cerebras Systems jumped nearly 70% on its May 15 market debut, closing with a market cap of roughly $95 billion — one of the largest opening-day valuations in U.S. IPO history. The blockbuster listing reignited investor interest in mega-private-company IPOs including SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, while signaling a credible rival to Nvidia's data-center dominance.
South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Min-seok issued a public ultimatum May 17, warning that May 18 talks at the Central Labor Relations Committee are 'the last chance' to avert a general strike by 50,000 Samsung Electronics workers scheduled for May 21. Samsung shares slid roughly 8% on strike risk, with the dispute centered on a stark bonus gap: 607% of annual salary for the memory unit versus 50–100% for foundry and System LSI workers.