Korea continued to attract attention as the back and forth over North Korea continued during the week. Douglas Kim and Scott Laprise/ 乐天虎 continue their coverage of THAAD and North Korea in Why Is Trump Demanding US$1 Billion for THAAD from South Korean Government? and China’s View of the North Korea Problem – Part III respectively. Check out the comments sections for the active discussions between Smartkarma's insight providers.

Korea also saw significant IPO coverage from Douglas and Sanghyun Park in ING Life Insurance IPO Part 6 - Subscription Result Analysis & Post IPO Forecasts , ING Life Insurance Korea - TRADING STRATEGY for Day 1 & Intermediate Period Post IPO, Netmarble Games - TRADING STRATEGY for Day 1 & Intermediate Period Post the IPO, Samyang Optics IPO Part 1 - Schedule, Financials & Valuation and S-Traffic Co. IPO Preview - (Part 1): Primary Beneficiary of Smart Highways Expansion in Korea . David Blennerhassett and Michael Chambers round out the coverage with Taking KBI and KBC Private and SK Telecom’s Focus on Profitability Is Bearing Fruit respectively.

Golden Week beginning on Wednesday meant limited coverage on Japan aside from a deluge of earnings. The general tone of results was positive while most company guidance was on the weak/conservative side. Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267 JP), Yahoo Japan Corp (4689 JP) and Olympus Corp (7733 JP) were particularly weak among companies covered on Smartkarma. Please refer the table at the bottom for brief summaries of earnings and links to the relevant insights. Elsewhere, Travis Lundy and Nicholas Benes take a dim view of JTEKT Corp (6473 JP)'s offer for Fuji Kiko Co Ltd (7260 JP), Scott Foster looks at Horiba Ltd (6856 JP), Mio Kato, CFA offers ideas for the news fiscal year, Ryota Hayashi of Nowcast uses big data to forecast Japan's CPI and Patrick Hansen of Custom Products Group examines aggregate results so far.