CNBC Daily Open: Kospi bull run rolls on
Hello, this is Leonie Kidd writing to you from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC's Daily Open.
Amid a plethora of global market forces, sometimes an unlikely trend emerges. The strength of South Korea's Kospi is one of those moments, logging a remarkable set of returns since the start of the year.
But the Iran war continues to loom large over markets, with the near-daily decisions from the White House keeping investors on edge.
It's only the start of May, and already South Korea's Kospi has surged over 70% since the start of the year. Today's trading adds to those gains, driving the index above 7,000 to a fresh record high.
The surge is supported by Samsung. Shares jumped more than 15% Wednesday, pushing the chip giant's market capitalization past the $1 trillion mark as investors continued to pile into artificial intelligence-linked stocks.
Samsung is the second Asian company to cross the $1 trillion mark, after TSMC, which first crossed that threshold on Feb. 26, according to FactSet data.
Samsung's stock has breached a record high and is on course for the largest single-day gain on record, data from FactSet showed.
Broader equity markets are higher, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is pausing "Project Freedom," the U.S. military's effort to guide commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, one day after the operation began.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, said the decision was based in part on "the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement" with Iran.
Project Freedom "will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump wrote.
China hosted Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi Wednesday for the first time since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel war on Tehran, just days before Trump's scheduled visit to Beijing.
Wang Yi, China's top diplomat, held a meeting with Araghchi on Wednesday morning, according to state-backed Xinhua News Agency.
Chinese state media proactively publicized the visit late Tuesday, citing a foreign ministry statement that noted Beijing initiated the invitation. But the official statement did not disclose an agenda.
In corporate news, Lufthansa and Novo Nordisk lead the earnings slate in Europe, while Disney will be the headline act in the U.S. later today.
Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy breaks from ‘never sell’ approach to the flagship crypto
Strategy's latest earnings release marks a subtle but meaningful shift in the company's approach to bitcoin: Instead of passively stockpiling bitcoin, it's going to more actively manage the balance sheet to maximize the value of bitcoin per share.
That's a reversal from the company's longstanding "never sell" strategy, which originated with chairman, founder and bitcoin evangelist Michael Saylor – and it comes as the company posts a $12.5 billion net loss in the first quarter due to the slump in the bitcoin price in the beginning of the year.
"Our ability to sell bitcoin either to buy U.S. dollars or sell bitcoin to buy debt if it's accretive to bitcoin per share is something that we would consider doing going forward," Phong Le, president and CEO of the company, said on the earnings call Tuesday evening.