By Reshma Kapadia
Korean stocks have soared nearly 90% this year, making them the world's best-performing market. But hedge fund managers at the Sohn Investment Conference this past week still saw bargains in an often-overlooked market that's bigger than Canada's, with gross domestic product per capita on par with Japan. As PLP Funds founder and Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Lennon said, the world "is coming to Korea" as a leader in chips, ships, and defense.
Korean outperformance has been fueled by its chip-making duo of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and from government efforts to improve governance and capital allocation.
Pertento Partners founder Eduardo Marques sees a backdoor entry through Korea's conglomerate holding companies. Take memory-chip maker SK Hynix. It trades at six times forward earnings -- cheaper than Micron Technology at 10 -- and should remain a cash gusher as artificial-intelligence booms. The backdoor play: Buy SK Hynix parent SK Square, which trades at a 47% discount to the chip maker. Another holding company, Samsung Life Insurance, trades at 50% of book value, and holds a 10% stake in Samsung Electronics.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix redistributes 10% of its operating profit in employee bonuses -- a practice Samsung is starting to adopt. That's as much as $37 billion in bonuses -- a mid-single digit share of GDP -- and a boon to other Korean companies.
Write to Reshma Kapadia at reshma.kapadia@barrons.com
Last Week
Markets
President Trump called Iran's peace proposal "unacceptable" before heading off with a retinue of U.S. CEOs to Beijing for talks with China's Xi Jinping. Oil rose. U.S. stocks edged to new highs on Monday. April data were grim: Energy prices drove inflation to 3.8%; producer prices came in at 6%, the most in four years. The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to chair the Federal Reserve. The Nasdaq Composite hit more highs as chips soared. In Beijing, Xi warned Trump about Taiwan, but there were no breakthroughs. Stocks were down on inflation worries. On the week, the Dow industrials fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, and the Nasdaq shed 0.1%.
Companies
China ordered 200 Boeing planes, fewer than expected. Blackstone asked senior executives of its flagship private-credit fund to back the fund as redemptions rose. KKR's biggest private-credit fund took what amounts to a 10% write-down of its net asset value. Walmart is laying off or relocating 1,000 corporate workers. Trump announced that Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary was exiting the agency.
Deals
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apollo Global Management held talks to sell one of its private-credit-focused business development companies, MidCap Financial Investment... EBay rejected GameStop's $56 billion unsolicited bid...OpenAI-backed chip maker Cerebras Systems went public, raising $5.55 billion, largest this year. Shares rose 68% on the debut.
Next Week
Tuesday 5/19
17 S&P 500 index companies announce quarterly results this week as first-quarter earnings season winds down. Home Depot reports results on Tuesday, followed by Intuit, Lowe's, Nvidia, and Target on Wednesday. Deere and Walmart release their earnings on Thursday.
Wednesday 5/20
The Federal Open Market Committee releases the minutes from its late-April monetary-policy meeting. At that confab, the FOMC left the federal-funds rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%. It was the last meeting for Jerome Powell as Fed chair, who led the central bank for over eight years. Powell's successor, Kevin Warsh, was confirmed by the Senate this past week.
Thursday 5/21
The Census Bureau reports residential construction data for April. Consensus estimate is for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million privately owned housing starts, roughly 80,000 fewer than in March.
S&P Global releases both its Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers' Indexes for May. Economists forecast a 53.6 reading for the Manufacturing PMI and 51.3 for the Services PMI. This compares with readings of 54.5 and 51, respectively, in April.
The Numbers
73%
Percentage of Americans in a Fed survey who say they are doing OK financially, holding steady since 2022.
40
The average age of U.S. student-loan defaulters, almost 2.5 years older than defaulters before the pandemic.
4 M
How many barrels of oil a day in global reserves fell on average in April as a result of the Iran war, a record high.
5.13%
The yield on 30-year U.S. government debt sold this past week, the highest since 2007.
Write to Robert Teitelman at bob.teitelman@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
By Reshma Kapadia
Korean stocks have soared nearly 90% this year, making them the world's best-performing market. But hedge fund managers at the Sohn Investment Conference this past week still saw bargains in an often-overlooked market that's bigger than Canada's, with gross domestic product per capita on par with Japan. As PLP Funds founder and Chief Investment Officer Jonathan Lennon said, the world "is coming to Korea" as a leader in chips, ships, and defense.
Korean outperformance has been fueled by its chip-making duo of SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and from government efforts to improve governance and capital allocation.
Pertento Partners founder Eduardo Marques sees a backdoor entry through Korea's conglomerate holding companies. Take memory-chip maker SK Hynix. It trades at six times forward earnings -- cheaper than Micron Technology at 10 -- and should remain a cash gusher as artificial-intelligence booms. The backdoor play: Buy SK Hynix parent SK Square, which trades at a 47% discount to the chip maker. Another holding company, Samsung Life Insurance, trades at 50% of book value, and holds a 10% stake in Samsung Electronics.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix redistributes 10% of its operating profit in employee bonuses -- a practice Samsung is starting to adopt. That's as much as $37 billion in bonuses -- a mid-single digit share of GDP -- and a boon to other Korean companies.
Write to Reshma Kapadia at reshma.kapadia@barrons.com
Last Week
Markets
President Trump called Iran's peace proposal "unacceptable" before heading off with a retinue of U.S. CEOs to Beijing for talks with China's Xi Jinping. Oil rose. U.S. stocks edged to new highs on Monday. April data were grim: Energy prices drove inflation to 3.8%; producer prices came in at 6%, the most in four years. The Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh to chair the Federal Reserve. The Nasdaq Composite hit more highs as chips soared. In Beijing, Xi warned Trump about Taiwan, but there were no breakthroughs. Stocks were down on inflation worries. On the week, the Dow industrials fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 rose 0.1%, and the Nasdaq shed 0.1%.
Companies
China ordered 200 Boeing planes, fewer than expected. Blackstone asked senior executives of its flagship private-credit fund to back the fund as redemptions rose. KKR's biggest private-credit fund took what amounts to a 10% write-down of its net asset value. Walmart is laying off or relocating 1,000 corporate workers. Trump announced that Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary was exiting the agency.
Deals
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apollo Global Management held talks to sell one of its private-credit-focused business development companies, MidCap Financial Investment... EBay rejected GameStop's $56 billion unsolicited bid...OpenAI-backed chip maker Cerebras Systems went public, raising $5.55 billion, largest this year. Shares rose 68% on the debut.
Next Week
Tuesday 5/19
17 S&P 500 index companies announce quarterly results this week as first-quarter earnings season winds down. Home Depot reports results on Tuesday, followed by Intuit, Lowe's, Nvidia, and Target on Wednesday. Deere and Walmart release their earnings on Thursday.
Wednesday 5/20
The Federal Open Market Committee releases the minutes from its late-April monetary-policy meeting. At that confab, the FOMC left the federal-funds rate unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75%. It was the last meeting for Jerome Powell as Fed chair, who led the central bank for over eight years. Powell's successor, Kevin Warsh, was confirmed by the Senate this past week.
Thursday 5/21
The Census Bureau reports residential construction data for April. Consensus estimate is for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million privately owned housing starts, roughly 80,000 fewer than in March.
S&P Global releases both its Manufacturing and Services Purchasing Managers' Indexes for May. Economists forecast a 53.6 reading for the Manufacturing PMI and 51.3 for the Services PMI. This compares with readings of 54.5 and 51, respectively, in April.
The Numbers
73%
Percentage of Americans in a Fed survey who say they are doing OK financially, holding steady since 2022.
40
The average age of U.S. student-loan defaulters, almost 2.5 years older than defaulters before the pandemic.
4 M
How many barrels of oil a day in global reserves fell on average in April as a result of the Iran war, a record high.
5.13%
The yield on 30-year U.S. government debt sold this past week, the highest since 2007.
Write to Robert Teitelman at bob.teitelman@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 15, 2026 18:59 ET (22:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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