Global TradFi & Macroeconomics

Foreign investors net sold over 1 trillion won in Korean government bonds this month, marking an unusual shift after months of heavy buying. The net selling reached 1.538 trillion won as of August 21, concentrated in short-term bonds with 2-3 year maturities. The selling pressure stems from

According to Newsis, over the past two years, major South Korean listed REITs have plummeted 60–67% while the KOSPI rose 2.6x. KB StarREITs fell 67%, Shinhan Global Active REITs dropped 63%, and Marston Premier REITs declined 62%. The losses were triggered by global commercial real estate

According to Morgan Stanley research published on August 20, the U.S. Treasury is doubling the size of liquidity-support buyback operations for 10-20 year and 20-30 year maturity bonds from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, effective September 9. This marks the first adjustment to buy

Moderna shares surged 176.97% on August 20, closing at $174.38 and marking the largest single-day gain for an S&P 500 component stock this century. The rally was driven by positive late-stage trial results for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine co-developed with Merck. Moderna's market

According to Yonhap Infomax, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 468.34 points, or 0.71%, to 65,748.45 on August 21, while the TOPIX index dropped 10.87 points, or 0.27%, to 4,048.86. The decline followed overnight weakness in U.S. Treasury yields and a selloff in the Nasdaq, triggered by broader

According to Yonhapinfomax, foreign investors net sold off South Korean government bonds worth 1.538 trillion Korean won since the beginning of August, marking an unusual shift after months of net purchases in May and June. The selling was concentrated in short-term and medium-term bonds maturing b

Chinese toy manufacturer Pop Mart’s founder and CEO, Wang Ning, announced during the company’s interim results earnings call at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 20 that Pop Mart would launch a stock buyback program worth 2 billion to 5 billion yuan—up to approximately $740 million—within the next six months. According to Mojing Data, which tracks Tmall, Taobao, and Douyin, Pop Mart’s online product sales in China still fell 21% year over year in July despite the launch of new products such

According to Korea Exchange, KOSPI rose 31.06 points (0.45%) to 6,883.64 on August 21, as of 11 a.m. local time. KOSDAQ declined 92.63 points (1.35%) to 6,759.95.

According to aiNews24, on August 21, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to pursue a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this year, sparking a surge in South Korea-North Korea cooperation-related stocks. Most of the rising equities are companies that previously operated in the

Shein Global Holdings has postponed the listing of its Hong Kong IPO shares to Sept. 1, following slight delays in receiving investor orders and adjustments to its valuation. The maximum listing valuation is now capped at no more than $30 billion, and the company plans to begin bookbuilding on Aug. 24. Shein Hong Kong IPO Timeline Adjusted According to people familiar with the matter, Shein initially aimed to complete the entire IPO process by the end of August. Due to delays in receiving invest

According to Arkham data monitored by ChainCatcher, Morgan Stanley increased its Bitcoin holdings by approximately 320.95 BTC over two consecutive days through its spot Bitcoin ETF MSBT, investing $21.91 million. The firm's total Bitcoin position now stands at 6,995 BTC, valued at approximately $515

According to JPMorgan Chase, cited by Benzinga, Marvell Technology and Google announced on Thursday an expansion of their long-term partnership to jointly develop customized chips supporting Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) ecosystem. The products include AI inference offload engines, storage c

According to Korea Exchange, Kakao's stock fell 12.27% to 33,950 won on August 21 amid selling pressure triggered by the company's governance restructuring announcement. The exchange halted trading in Kakao shares for 30 minutes during the morning

According to Jin10, Shanghai gold opened at 977.32 yuan per gram on Friday, August 21, trading 0.14 yuan lower than the international gold price of 977.46 yuan per gram.

According to Guru Club, on August 21, container shipping rates on the Europe route (main contract) rallied over 10% intraday to 1934 points, marking a new high since June 3.

The Federal Reserve's foreign reverse repo facility balance reached approximately $373.4 billion as of the 19th, marking an 8-month high since the first week of October last year, according to Fed data released on the 20th (local time). The balance increased by approximately $55.7 billion over the r

According to industry sources today (August 21), Samsung Electronics is poised to announce a record-breaking shareholder return policy of over 100 trillion won, significantly surpassing SK Hynix's recently disclosed 40 trillion won buyback program. The move is expected to trigger a revaluation of se

According to Jin10 Futures, styrene prices in Jiangsu rose on August 21. The market rally was driven by strength in crude oil and benzene prices, with holders raising quotes. Current spot and quasi-spot quotes stood at 9,100-9,150 yuan/ton, according to Longzhong

According to Korea Customs Service, South Korea's exports reached 55.2 billion dollars in the first 20 days of August 2026, up 56% year-over-year and marking an all-time high for the August 1-20 period. On a daily average basis adjusted for 14.5 working days, exports rose 61.5% compared to the