October 31: Intel's 29% plunge, KOSPI selling sidecar shock, Binance's 8.4 trillion won largest ever hack, and pediatric emergency investigation guidelines discussed

On the 30th (local time), the selling of technology stocks became widespread in the New York Stock Exchange as the earnings announcements of Amazon and Intel, following Alphabet, fueled overinvestment in AI infrastructure and skepticism about profitability. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% (51,770.31), the S&P 500 Index fell 1.82% (7,580.07), and the Nasdaq Composite Index, centered on technology stocks, fell by 3.3% during the day and closed at 25,437.00, a 2.86% plunge. In particular, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 7.20% in one day, recording the largest drop since June 23, and Intel, which issued guidance for its fourth quarter profits to be cut in half due to a surge in memory component prices and the aftermath of the Israeli factory accident, plunged 28.58% in the regular session, evaporating about $120 billion in market capitalization in one day. Amazon recorded cloud sector (AWS) sales of $46 billion ($578 billion in order backlog), a 39.3% increase compared to the same period last year, and declared that it would sell its own AI chip 'Trainium' directly to external customers starting in late 2027. However, third quarter sales ($201.94 billion) fell below market expectations and a surge in AI facility investment in the past 12 months. Free cash flow was weak, turning into a deficit of $42.4 billion (approximately 56.7 trillion won). Even SanDisk, which announced surprise earnings of $11 billion (+378%) in sales and $8.78 billion in operating profit (49 times the previous year) in the first quarter of the fiscal year and an 8-to-1 stock split, was caught up in the profit-taking selling bomb across the semiconductor sector.

The big tech cold wave originating from the United States also had a direct hit on Asian stock markets and raw materials markets. In the stock market on the 30th, KOSPI's selling sidecar was triggered for the first time in 11 trading days at 10:05 a.m. as program listings poured in early in the session, and at one point during the day, it fell 5.7% to 5,599.42 and ended trading at 5,730.74, down 3.48% (206.48 points). Foreigners alone sold a net worth of KRW 1.6168 trillion, dragging down Samsung Electronics (-3% range) and SK Hynix (-7% range), and the KOSDAQ index also fell 3.83% to 724.38. Kia's operating profit was KRW 1.8183 trillion despite the highest sales in the third quarter ever due to expanded electric vehicle incentives, rising raw material prices, and logistics disruption due to the war in the Middle East. The stock price plunged 11% due to the earnings shock. To make matters worse, in the Middle East, an oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz was attacked by a hull-mounted mine (limpet mine), resulting in the first mine damage since the start of the war, and news broke that the U.S. Central Command reported additional military options against Iran. As news broke, Brent crude oil jumped 2.40% to $117.64 per barrel, reaching a new high in six months, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) also rose 2.08%. It rose and closed at $104.12, recording a surge of 13.6% and 15.2%, respectively, in the month of October.

The domestic and foreign investment community was shocked by the sharp decline in semiconductors and big tech that continued for two days in a row. In DC Inside, the article '[Special Feature] Threatening SanDisk's CEO to "kneel and crawl", an atrocity at Apple in its prime', which reexamines the past relationship between Apple and the memory industry, was recorded about 11,000 times, and in Clien, 'Semiconductor stocks are plummeting after SanDisk earnings announcement' (9,860 times), 'Amazon -11%, Intel -20%' (8,062 times), 'The losses are too big. Articles complaining about account losses or analyzing the background of the sale, such as 'It's difficult' (7,593 times) and 'Google is going out of business' (7,060 times), rose to the top in succession. Overseas, American Remy's article analyzing Alphabet's market cap evaporation of $500 billion and Taiwan's PTT's article summarizing the causes of the Taiwanese stock market plunge were among the most recommended.

Regarding the controversy over the search and seizure of the Pediatric Emergency Medical Center at Ajou University Hospital, where the patient was being treated, the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency command visited the hospital in person and bowed several times, but three faculty members, including Center Director Lee Ji-sook, eventually submitted their resignations, heightening concerns about the collapse of essential medical care. Ajou University Hospital said that 9 specialists are currently continuing to provide normal treatment and that it will continue to persuade the 3 who submitted their resignation until the end. However, the Korean Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the heads of national pediatric emergency medical centers cried at an emergency press conference and appealed, "We want to protect the children," and called for the release of detailed draft guidelines for medical accident investigation by the end of November, along with in principle restrictions on search and seizure in emergency rooms. As the repercussions grew, Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyung decided to meet with the acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency next week and begin preparing guidelines for essential medical investigations, including restrictions on search and seizure at emergency medical sites. Online, Theku's anecdote about his worries about refraining from visiting the emergency room (approximately 70,000 views), the breaking news about the center director's resignation (approximately 54,000 views), the persuasive interview with the hospital director (approximately 50,000 views), the local medical doctor's reason for coming to the city (approximately 47,000 views), and the Ruliweb article about his resignation (approximately 34,000 views) garnered a lot of sympathy, with a total of over 250,000 views.

Meanwhile, the production team of Activision and Infinity Ward, who aroused public outrage by inserting actual broadcast news footage from the October 29 Itaewon disaster into a fictional terrorist scene in the new game 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4', issued an official apology two days after the news of the bereaved families' council's statement of protest and the government's review of sanctions was reported. The production team expressed deep condolences and apology to the bereaved family and Korean society and decided to completely delete the scene in question through an update on November 12. This news became a hot topic on Theku (approximately 52,000 views), Instiz (approximately 28,000 views), DC Inside (approximately 27,000 views), and Bobae Dream (7,421 views). On the same day, in the gaming industry, Krafton officially announced the production of a live-action drama series of the masterpiece 'PUBG: Battleground' in collaboration with Netflix and Hollywood actor and producer Donald Glover.

The memory semiconductor supercycle effect simultaneously drove national finances and large corporations' year-end personnel and supply chain strategies. According to the September national tax revenue status announced by the Ministry of Finance and Economy, national tax revenue last month was KRW 55.2 trillion, a surge of 91.6% compared to the same month last year. Among them, corporate tax increased by a whopping KRW 23.6 trillion (+187.6%) from last year to KRW 36.2 trillion due to an increase in interim prepayments due to improved performance of semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It was collected (385 trillion won in cumulative national taxes from January to September, tax revenue progress rate of 80.5%). SK Group sought stability by retaining Choi Chang-won, Chairman of the Supex Pursuit Council, and CEOs of major affiliates, in the CEO reshuffle on November 1. At the same time, it established a new 'Americas Headquarters' organization at SK Hynix, fully assigning President Ahn Hyeon of Development, and held the first 'Partners Day' in Japan to share the next-generation HBM technology roadmap with about 20 local subcontractors (SK Innovation's Seung-il Jeong and Dong-soo Kang). (Change to individual representative system). In the steel and secondary battery industry, POSCO's labor and management dramatically agreed to a 2.6% increase in basic wages after four months of negotiations before the third strike, and POSCO Future M agreed with LG Energy Solutions to supply a total of 720,000 tons of LFP anode materials and artificial graphite cathode materials over 7 years.

In the consumer hardware market, there was a heated debate surrounding the durability of the hinge of Apple's first foldable phone, 'iPhone Duo', and the supply and demand of graphics cards and memory. According to a market research company, sales of the iPhone 18 Pro series in the three weeks following its launch increased by 3.1% compared to the previous year thanks to the success of the Chinese market (sluggish in the U.S. and Japan), while controversy over hinge defects in the foldable iPhone Duo and a dispute over display supplier responsibility exploded in online communities. Starting with Theku's 'iPhone Duo hinge incident, is there a problem with Samsung?' (approx. 49,000 views), Ruliweb's 'Apple Bar: Duophone hinge problem, Samsung is also responsible.jpg' (approx. 31,000 views), Funny University's 'Evidence that iPhone Duo did not even copy the answer key' (approx. 19,000 views), Pomppu's 'Apple's choice after memory request was rejected' (approx. 17,000 views), DC Inside's '[Singal] Singlbungle iPhone Duo Advantages' (about 15,000 views) swept the top rankings, and Ruliweb's article about the disappearance of the GeForce RTX 5080 item from Nvidia's official website also recorded about 31,000 views.