PRE-MARKET JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN STOCKS NEWS: Samsung Electronics earnings are scheduled today

Honda Motor (7267 JT) - Co. is reportedly in talks with Nissan Motor (7201 JT) over collaboration on EV batteries. (NHK)

Itochu (8001 JT) - Co. is set to acquire a stake in IAG Engine Tech, a unit of International Airlines Group, expanding its aviation portfolio into aircraft engine maintenance. (Nikkei)

Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JT) - Co. has secured underwriting roles in the planned US IPOs of Anthropic and SpaceX, building on its experience with SoftBank-related transactions. (Nikkei)

Suzuki Motor (7269 JT) - Co. faces pressure on its small petrol car business in India as the country moves to tighten vehicle emissions standards and remove provisions favouring smaller vehicles. (Nikkei)

Toshiba - Co.'s potential relisting is reportedly attracting interest from overseas hedge funds, with investors focused on its Kioxia Holdings stake and broader business transformation. (Nikkei)

Japanese PM Takaichi has urged German Chancellor Merz to ensure Japanese automakers are not excluded from the EU's proposed 'Made in Europe' EV subsidies, although Tokyo's lobbying efforts have so far been unsuccessful. (Nikkei)

Hanall Biopharma (009420 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net rose 924.1% Y/Y to 3.1bln, operating profit rose 265% Y/Y to 1.3bln, rev. fell 2.2% Y/Y to 39.9bln. (Yonhap)

HD Hyundai (267250 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net rose 40% Y/Y to 1.38tln, operating profit rose 71.5% Y/Y to 2.91tln, rev. rose 21.2% Y/Y to 22.08tln, driven by strong performances across its shipbuilding, machinery and energy businesses. (Yonhap)

HD Hyundai (267250 KS) - Co. is discussing potential order volumes with the US Navy for vessels to be constructed at a proposed US shipyard. (Yonhap)

LG Chem (051910 KS) - Co. plans to sell KRW 2.5tln worth of shares in its battery unit to enhance shareholder value. (Yonhap)

Samsung C&T (028260 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net fell 9.5% Y/Y to 800.9bln, operating profit rose 15% Y/Y to 1.14tln, rev. rose 18.3% Y/Y to 12tln, with FX losses weighing on net profit. (Yonhap)

Samsung Epis (0126Z0 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net 96.3bln, operating profit 105.1bln, rev. 441.9bln. (Yonhap)

The anchor item is Samsung Electronics reporting, and the established pattern with this name is a two-stage disclosure: a brief preliminary guidance print followed weeks later by the full results with divisional detail, so the market typically treats the first release as a direction check and the second as the real information event. Samsung's numbers have historically functioned as the cleanest listed read on the memory cycle, with the semiconductor division's operating profit and any commentary on DRAM and NAND pricing feeding directly into the rest of the Korean complex and the wider Asian semiconductor supply chain; the foundry-versus-memory mix within the chip division is usually the distinction that matters for how peers trade on it. The surrounding items are routine pre-market single-name flow, but several fit familiar templates: trading-house stake-building (Itochu into aviation aftermarket), Japanese automaker collaboration talks of the kind that have repeatedly surfaced and dissolved without consummation, and the Toshiba relisting story, where overseas hedge fund interest ahead of a return to market is a well-worn pattern in post-buyout Japanese situations. The diplomatic item on EU EV subsidy eligibility is the sort of lobbying story that has tended to run for months without near-term resolution. For the earnings themselves, the tells are the memory division's margin trajectory and capex language rather than the headline net figure, which in Korean reporting is frequently distorted by FX and one-offs, as the Samsung C&T print in the same wrap illustrates.