BriefZip

Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the US midterm elections held on Nov. 3, 2026. As of 8:05 p.m. Korea time on Nov. 4 (6:05 a.m. Eastern), race calls gave Democrats 231 House seats , already above the 218 needed for a majority. Republicans had 144 called seats, and 60 House races were still being counted. In the Senate, Democrats held 54 seats after taking seven seats from Republicans, while two races, in Alaska and Mississippi, were still being counted. This post walks through the seat count, the main reasons analysts give for the result, what the outcome could mean for artificial intelligence and data centers, and what President Donald Trump is expected to face in the final two years of his term. The seat count so far The House has 435 seats, and a party needs 218 to control it. Before the election, Republicans held a narrow majority, with 219 members in their conference. With Democrats already past 218 on called races alone, control of the chamber is se...

South Korea's stock market took buyers on a wild ride on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. The benchmark KOSPI index slid as much as about 4% during the session, then turned around in the afternoon to close 0.62% higher at 5,683.80. The same day, e-commerce company Coupang reported a third-quarter operating loss despite higher sales, Hyundai Motor Group showed a new building block for large hydrogen plants, and a consumer dispute panel ordered Mercedes-Benz Korea to compensate electric-car buyers who were misled about their batteries. This briefing walks through each story, explains the numbers and terms, and ends with what to watch next. Won amounts are converted at about 1,341.5 won per dollar, the Seoul market reference rate at 3:30 p.m. on November 4, unless another rate is noted. Stocks: a 400-point swing in one day The KOSPI, which tracks the stocks listed on the main board of the Korea Exchange, closed up 35.01 points, or 0.62%, at 5,683.80. The KOSDAQ, Korea's market ...

Coupang, the company behind South Korea's Rocket Delivery service, increased sales in the third quarter of 2026 and still lost money on its core operations. The New York-listed e-commerce company reported net revenue of $9.96 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, up 7% from a year earlier and up 11% on a constant currency basis. But it posted an operating loss of $450 million , compared with an operating profit of $162 million in the same quarter of 2025. The biggest single hit came from a July fire at a leased fulfillment center in Incheon, west of Seoul. Yet even after stripping out the fire, Coupang was still in the red. This post walks through what the company does, how much the business grew, how big the fire cost was, and why costs outran sales. What Coupang is Coupang is often described as the Amazon of South Korea. Its parent company, Coupang, Inc., is headquartered in the United States and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CPNG, but most o...

South Korea's foreign exchange reserves rose to $443.16 billion at the end of October, the Bank of Korea said on Nov. 4. That is $2.6 billion more than at the end of September and the highest level since May 2022, a span of four years and five months. It also beat this year's previous high, set in August at $442.28 billion. What makes the increase notable is that October was a month when the US dollar got stronger, which normally pulls reserve totals down. This post explains what the reserves are, why they rose anyway, and what they are made of. What foreign exchange reserves are Foreign exchange reserves are the foreign-currency assets a central bank keeps on hand to stabilize the currency market and meet external payments. Think of them as a country's emergency savings in foreign money. If the Korean won suddenly weakens sharply, or if banks and companies struggle to get dollars, the authorities can sell some of these assets to supply dollars and calm the market. L...

The first office and technical staff union in the history of Hyosung Heavy Industries, a South Korean maker of power equipment, began a 72-hour warning strike on Nov. 4. The strike is scheduled to run through Nov. 6. The union wants a 10% increase in base pay, clear rules for paying bonuses and a smaller gap in benefits between job groups. The company says the union walked away from talks before even looking at its wage offer, and that it will respond according to the law and its principles. The company also says its main factory will keep running because production workers are not part of the strike. The dispute involves a company that makes equipment used to move electricity from power plants to cities, factories and data centers. Who is Hyosung Heavy Industries? Hyosung Heavy Industries is part of the Hyosung group, one of South Korea's family-controlled business groups. Its heavy industries division makes power equipment such as transformers and circuit breakers, and the c...

Wall Street split again on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, as Americans voted in the midterm elections. A rebound in chip stocks lifted the Nasdaq Composite 0.83% , while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.38% as Apple fell. September job openings came in above expectations, Apple's record quarter was overshadowed by a softer margin outlook, and Palantir reported that revenue nearly doubled from a year earlier. This briefing walks through the market close, the jobs data and the two company reports, with the numbers explained and what to watch next. Stocks: chips bounce back on Election Day The Nasdaq Composite closed at 25,372.01, up 207.65 points. The S&P 500 gained 27.52 points, or 0.36%, to 7,568.92. The Dow fell 197.26 points, or 0.38%, to 51,786.72. Chip stocks had sold off hard the previous session, and many of them recovered on Tuesday. Because the Nasdaq Composite is heavily weighted toward technology companies, it tends to move most when semiconductors and so...

South Korea is changing how shares in initial public offerings are handed out. Institutions that promise to hold IPO shares for at least six months will be able to receive part of an offering in advance , under a cornerstone investor system set to take effect on Nov. 13. The Financial Services Commission, the country's top financial regulator, said the Cabinet approved the enabling amendment to the enforcement decree of the Capital Markets Act on Nov. 3. The decree will be promulgated in November and is scheduled to apply from Nov. 13, the date the amended law takes effect. The idea is simple: give priority to investors who will stay, rather than to those who may sell on the first day of trading. Here is how the system works, what the limits are and why the regulator is introducing it. What a cornerstone investor is IPO shares are offered to public investors when a company lists, and may include newly issued shares or existing shares sold by shareholders. In Korea, institutiona...

South Korea's navy and its arms procurement agency launched the 3,600-ton diesel submarine Seo Hui on Nov. 3 at Hanwha Ocean's Okpo shipyard on Geoje Island. The boat carries 70 domestically made systems , 12 more than the previous submarine class, including a Korean-built lithium battery system. It is not finished yet: after sea trials, it is scheduled to be delivered to the navy in 2028. The launch matters for two reasons. First, the battery choice changes how long a diesel submarine can stay hidden underwater. Second, the higher share of locally made equipment is meant to speed up maintenance at home and make Korean submarines easier to sell abroad. Both points come from the joint statement issued by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), South Korea's weapons procurement agency, and the Republic of Korea Navy. What kind of submarine is Seo Hui Seo Hui, hull number SS-088, is the second boat of Batch-II of the KSS-III program, also called Jangbogo-III...

South Korean stocks had a rough Tuesday. The benchmark KOSPI fell 3.59% on Nov. 3, and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ dropped 4.08%. On the same day, the government finalized the details of a new rule that lets long-term institutional investors receive IPO shares in advance, Kia announced a plan to supply electric vans to a major Japanese taxi operator, and the navy launched a new 3,600-ton submarine built with 70 domestically made systems. Here is what happened and why it matters. Stocks: a broad sell-off The KOSPI, which tracks large companies listed on the Korea Exchange's main board, closed at 5,648.79, down 210.29 points. The KOSDAQ, Korea's smaller market dominated by technology and biotech growth companies, closed at 704.39, down 29.97 points or 4.08%. Both indexes stayed weak through the session. Market commentary pointed to the burden of heavy artificial intelligence investment and the funding needed to pay for it, even though international oil prices were lower. On Nov....

Marvell Technology agreed on Nov. 2 to acquire Lumentum in an all-stock deal valued at about $115 billion in enterprise value. No cash changes hands: Lumentum holders receive Marvell shares. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2028. Why Marvell wants Lumentum Marvell designs chips that move electrical signals between processors and servers inside data centers, along with custom AI chips. Lumentum makes lasers, optical transceivers and optical circuit switches that send data as light. The companies said copper links are hitting speed and power limits as AI data centers grow, accelerating the shift to optical connections. Optical transceiver: a part that turns electrical signals into light for fiber links, and back again on the other end. The strategic point is that faster processors are useful only when the rest of the system can keep them supplied with data. Electrical chips, network equipment and optical components perform different jobs along that path. Marvell i...

Samsung Biologics, a South Korean contract drugmaker, has asked its labor union to push back wage and collective bargaining talks that were scheduled to start on Nov. 3 by two weeks . The union rejected the idea and said it would go ahead with the industrial action it had already planned. Why the company wants a pause Samsung Biologics makes biologic drugs on behalf of other pharmaceutical companies. The two sides agreed on Oct. 28 to resume talks in the first week of November. The company says that on Oct. 30 the union demanded, in an official letter, that the company's lead negotiator be removed and replaced. It also says the union kept up pressure by preparing a strike and turning to its umbrella labor federation while talks were being arranged. The company said holding talks under those conditions would further damage trust, and proposed a two-week cooling-off period. It added that it was ready to resume talks during the two weeks if the union stopped its pressure and reque...

Wall Street split on Monday, Nov. 2. Crude oil fell more than 7% intraday on hopes for a US-Iran diplomatic breakthrough, while the Dow rose 0.41%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 1.07%. Factory data came in strong, and two big corporate deals landed in the chip and cloud space. Stocks and oil The Dow closed at 51,983.98, up 213.67 points. The S&P 500 fell 0.51% to 7,541.40, and the Nasdaq dropped 272.68 points to 25,164.32. Market commentary described the day as a rotation out of technology stocks. The three benchmarks do not hold the same mix of companies. The Dow follows 30 large blue-chip businesses and is price-weighted, so a company's share price affects its influence. The Nasdaq Composite has a particularly large technology presence, while the S&P 500 covers a broader group of large US companies. A rise in the Dow alongside a decline in the other two is therefore not a contradiction: it shows that the day's gains and losses were distributed uneve...