PRE-MARKET JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN STOCK NEWS: Nidec probe holds five former presidents liable; Tsugami lifts H1 profit view; LIG D&A hit with two-year bidding ban

• Cash session: Tech lagged a broadly firmer US session, with the NDX -0.13% at 29,490 while the S&P 500, Dow and Russell 2000 gained. Communications underperformed on Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta (META) weakness, while Tech saw marginal losses as continued concerns over AI-exposed debt weighed on AI names.
• AI/semis newsflow: Micron (MU) plans to invest up to USD 3bln to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain; TD Cowen checks indicated Oracle (ORCL) is leasing again, with NVIDIA (NVDA) appearing to provide credit support; Amazon (AMZN) is buying billions in NVIDIA AI systems it cannot yet turn on (Business Insider). Anthropic's draft IPO prospectus showed H1 revenue of USD 16.3bln and an USD 80.7bln net loss, driven largely by USD 72bln of accounting charges tied to convertible notes (WSJ).
• Super Micro Computer (SMCI): Guided Q1 FY27 net sales of USD 18.5-19.5bln (exp. 14.99bln; prev. guide 14.5-15.5bln), with adj. gross margin of 12-12.5%, on increased demand for AI platforms. SMCI +12% after-hours, while NQ futures rose c. 50 points on the guidance.
• SpaceX (SPCX): Q3 EPS 0.35 (exp. 0.17) and revenue USD 14.6bln (exp. 12.98bln), with SI revenue of USD 7.56bln (prev. 813mln Y/Y). On the call, CEO Musk guided ARR of USD 500bln-1tln by end-2027 and an incremental 13GW of compute by end-2027. Shares rose to +4.5% during the call, with NQ futures also grinding higher as traders cited Musk's forecasts and power names rose on the compute guidance. Musk said a SpaceX-Tesla (TSLA) merger would be a good idea but is far from certain; SPCX +8% and TSLA c+1%.5 after-hours.
• Netflix (NFLX): Beat on Q3 EPS and revenue but guided Q4 EPS (0.67 vs exp. 0.73) and revenue below expectations; shares -5.5% after-hours.

Idemitsu Kosan (5019 JT) - Co. will begin Japanese sales of LNG imported from outside the Middle East as soon as the early 2030s. (Nikkei)

IwaiCosmo Holdings (8707 JT) - IwaiCosmo Securities said unauthorised access at its online trading system operator Trade Works led to unapproved orders in seven client accounts, with trades executed in five; affected accounts have been restored and no customer losses incurred. (Nikkei)

Mazda Motor (7261 JT) - Pushed back its ROE target of 10% or more to FY ending March 2031 (prev. FY ending March 2026), citing external factors including US tariffs. (Nikkei)

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011 JT) - Japan plans to begin talks with MHI on transferring launch operations of the H3 rocket to the company, aiming to complete the transition by 2027. (Nikkei Asia)

Nidec (6594 JT) - Published its investigation committee report into the accounting fraud, which found five former presidents, incl. founder Shigenobu Nagamori, liable for failing to correct the misconduct; damages to the Co. put at JPY 27.6bln, incl. investigation costs. (Nikkei)

Nomura Holdings (8604 JT) - Germany's BaFin fined Co. EUR 320k for failing to properly file voting rights notifications on Commerzbank (CBK GY). (Nikkei)

Obic (4684 JT) - H1 operating profit likely rose over 10% Y/Y to above JPY 50bln, a record for the 26th consecutive year, according to Nikkei. (Nikkei)

Skymark Airlines (9204 JT) - Boeing (BA) received FAA certification for the 737-10, with deliveries expected in 2027; Skymark is set to introduce the aircraft in Japan. (Nikkei)

Takara Holdings (2531 JT) - To release its delayed Q1 results on 23rd October after completing the investigation into accounting at its US subsidiary. (Nikkei)

Toyota Motor (7203 JT) - Plans to begin production of a hydrogen fuel cell Hilux in Thailand from December 2027, initially for export. (Nikkei Asia)

Tsugami (6101 JT) - Raised H1 net profit forecast by JPY 3.3bln to JPY 12.3bln (+72% Y/Y), on solid demand from China and India. (Nikkei)

CJ Corp (001040 KS) / Shinsegae (004170 KS) - Shinsegae will join the Daou Kiwoom-CJ consortium, previously selected as preferred bidder, to acquire JoongAng Ilbo; acquisition price said to be around KRW 500bln. (Chosun)

Hyundai Engineering & Construction (000720 KS) - Won the KRW 2.61tln Mokdong New Town 10th District redevelopment project in Seoul. (Chosun)

JB Financial Group (175330 KS) - Invested KRW 40bln in AI firm Upstage for a stake of c. 2%. (Seoul Economic Daily)

Kakao (035720 KS) - Denied rumours of a block sale, a third-party share allotment and the sale of subsidiaries ahead of its planned spin-off. (Seoul Economic Daily)

Korea Aerospace Industries (047810 KS) - Export-Import Bank of Korea chief said the bank has no plan to sell its stake in KAI, but did not rule out a future sale. (Seoul Economic Daily)

LIG D&A (079550 KS) - DAPA banned Co. from bidding on defence contracts for two years over bribery allegations; Co. plans to take legal action to challenge the decision. (Yonhap)

POSCO Holdings (005490 KS) - Received conditional federal environmental approval for the first phase of its KRW 4tln low-carbon iron project at Port Hedland, Western Australia. (Seoul Economic Daily)

Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) - Reportedly started looking for new customers for its 5nm process; negotiations have begun on 2nm, though are taking longer than initially expected. (Chosun)

SK Hynix (000660 KS) - Q3 operating profit consensus is KRW 76.96tln, 5.6% below the estimate three months ago, amid signs its HBM4 leadership is weakening as Samsung closes the gap; HBM4 shipments said to have fallen short of expectations due to delays to NVIDIA's (NVDA) Rubin. Separately, Korea's four largest banks will provide KRW 2tln in financing to SK Hynix suppliers. (Chosun/Seoul Economic Daily)

This is the standard pre-market Asia corporate digest, and the open will be read through the prior US session: strong AI-infrastructure guidance from server names and a blowout print from a major space and compute name after hours, set against a subscriber miss in streaming, has tended to pull the region's semiconductor complex in opposite directions at the open, with memory names trading on the HBM leadership narrative rather than the broad tape. The Nidec item follows the established Japanese governance sequence: accounting irregularities surface, an investigation committee assigns personal liability, damages claims follow, and past episodes of this kind have shown the stock impact concentrated early, with the longer tail being civil suits, possible delisting review and any restatement of prior results rather than the initial finding itself. Founder liability of this scale is rarer and typically extends the story. The LIG D&A bidding suspension is the familiar Korean defence-contractor sanction pattern, where disqualification periods have historically been challenged in court and sometimes softened, so the legal filing is the near-term tell alongside how DAPA treats existing contracts versus new tenders. Guidance raises like Tsugami's on China and India machine-tool demand generally draw a gap response whose durability depends on whether peers confirm the cycle in coming weeks. Worth watching are any follow-on disclosures from the Nidec report, the court response to the LIG challenge, and whether the Korean memory names trade the narrowing HBM gap or the broader AI capex bid.