Category: 3. Business

Samsung Electronics and other major South Korean companies on Sunday announced fresh domestic investment plans at a meeting with President Lee Jae Myung, who hopes the moves will counter concerns that the firms would prioritize U.S. investments under a trade deal.

Lee’s meeting with business leaders came days after his government finalized a trade deal with the United States, in which Seoul pledged to invest $350 billion in U.S. industries in exchange for averting the Trump administration’s highest tariffs.

Samsung, a global leader in computer chips, said it will invest 450 trillion won ($310 billion) over the next five years to expand its domestic operations, including building another production line at its Pyeongtaek manufacturing hub to meet surging global semiconductor demands fueled by artificial intelligence.

Samsung said the new line, set to begin operations in 2028, is part of its broader effort to secure additional production capacity in anticipation of rising mid- to long-term demands for memory chips. The company also plans to build AI data centers in the country’s southwest South Jeolla Province and the southeastern city of Gumi to support government efforts to reduce the development gap between the greater Seoul metropolitan area and other regions.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s largest automaker, said it plans to invest 125 trillion won ($86.3 billion) from 2026 to 2030 to expand domestic research and development and advance new technologies such as AI, robotics and self-driving cars.

SK Group, another semiconductor powerhouse, and shipbuilders Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai also announced plans to increase their domestic investments. Both are central to South Korean commitments to boost the U.S. shipbuilding industry, a sector highlighted by President Donald Trump in negotiations with Seoul.

In his meeting with the companies’ chiefs, Lee credited the business sector for helping his government negotiate the trade deal with Washington but urged the companies to maintain strong domestic investments to ease concerns they might cut spending at home to invest more in America. He said his government is exploring various policy steps, including easing regulations, to help create a more favorable business environment for the companies.

SK Chair Chey Tae-won, whose group plans to invest at least 128 trillion won ($88.3 billion) domestically through 2028 with a focus on AI, said the finalization of trade talks with the United States eases uncertainties and paves the way for bolder domestic investment.

The two governments released the details of the trade agreement on Friday, including $150 billion in South Korean investments in the U.S. shipbuilding sector and an additional $200 billion in other American industries. Seoul says this will be capped at $20 billion per year to prevent financial instability.

The United States agreed to reduce tariffs on South Korean cars and auto parts from 25% to 15%, and to apply tariffs on South Korean semiconductors on terms “no less favorable” than those granted to comparable competitors in the future.

Boeing aims to stabilize aircraft production at current levels before advancing to the next industrial milestones as it implements safety and quality improvements, its top jetmaking executive said on Sunday.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope told reporters it was too early to say when Boeing would push 737 jet output to 47 a month, having recently been cleared by regulators to reach 42 a month after the lifting of temporary output curbs.

“Getting it better at (the right) pace is better than going fast,” Pope said in a briefing ahead of the Dubai Airshow.

Boeing won approval last month to raise 737 output to 42 per month, easing a 38-plane cap in place since a 2024 mid-air blowout caused by missing bolts in a door plug. The incident revealed widespread safety and quality lapses at Boeing.

The U.S. planemaker is now producing 42 of the jets a month and is on the brink of reaching eight a month on the 787 model.

“My initial focus is stabilizing at those two rates,” Pope said, adding this would involve meeting six targets agreed with the Federal Aviation Administration, including keeping tabs on supplier shortages and out-of-sequence work.

The trend in such industrial glitches is falling, Pope said.

Asked when the next milestones of 47 a month for the 737 and 10 for the 787 could be reached, Pope said, “I cannot put a definition on it … we’ll go up in rate when the system is ready to go up in rate.”

After decades of producing 737s at its Renton factory, south of Seattle, Boeing is setting up a new “North line” in its cavernous wide-body Everett factory north of the city to accommodate higher production of the narrow-body jet.

Pope said this would not be needed until Boeing takes the next step towards pre-Covid levels of 52 a month.

Asked whether Boeing would then follow Airbus even higher, Pope said: “My near-term focus is one rate break at a time.” But she added that part of the thinking behind extra capacity “is so we can meet the market and meet our customers’ demand long term.”

Boeing has fallen industrially well behind Airbus, partly due to the success of its European rival’s A321neo and partly because of a series of safety and industrial mishaps on its 737 series, which generates most of the company’s cash.

Airbus is producing 63 of the wider A320neo-family jets per month and plans to reach 75 per month by 2027, although some suppliers have questioned whether this is achievable.

Analysts say the production plans are critical for both companies as Boeing repairs its finances and Airbus attempts to build up a war chest for the next generation of planes.

Gold profits are glittering in 2025 — but cashing in may trigger a bigger tax bill than you might think.

The price of gold futures hit $4,000 per ounce in October, for the first time ever. While the precious metal dropped in price on Friday as part of a broader market decline, year-to-date returns still sat at nearly 50%, with a price around $4,100.

Exchange-traded funds backed by physical gold — like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), iShares Gold Trust (IAU), and abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF (SGOL) — are up by a similar amount.

By comparison, the S&P 500 U.S. stock index is up about 15% in 2025, as of Friday’s close.  

Heady returns in 2025 follow a year in which gold recorded its best annual performance since 2010, about 26%, according to the World Gold Council.

But investment profits from physical gold and funds that track gold are taxed differently from those of traditional assets like stocks and bonds, according to tax experts.

The upshot is that investors — especially those in the top tax brackets — may pay a higher federal tax rate on gold profits relative to assets like stocks and bonds.

That could leave gold investors with a surprise tax bill.

“I’ve seen missteps quite a few times, especially this year with the run that gold has had,” said Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo, which was No. 69 on the CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 list for 2025.

“Long-term” tax rates on investment profits — known as capital gains — are preferential relative to the marginal income tax rates that investors might pay on wages and other income, for example.

For example, the top federal rate on long-term capital gains, 20%, is lower than the top marginal income tax rate, 37%.

Long-term capital gains rates apply when an investor has owned an asset for more than one year.

However, physical gold and funds backed by physical gold are treated as collectibles for tax purposes — and collectibles have a top 28% rate on long-term capital gains.

“There’s no getting around that [collectibles rate] just because it’s held in an ETF wrapper,” Lucas said.

This also applies to other precious metals like silver.

Funds that hold gold futures contracts — instead of physical gold — have yet a different tax structure, with a top federal tax rate of 26.8%, said Jeffrey Levine, a certified public accountant and certified financial planner based in St. Louis.

“Just because you have a gold ETF doesn’t mean it’s going to be taxed exactly the same,” said Levine, the chief planning officer at Focus Partners Wealth.

In both cases — collectible and futures — investors in the top tax bracket would pay a higher rate on long-term profits than a traditional asset like a stock, he said.

Of course, this tax discussion only applies to gold held in a taxable brokerage account and sold for a profit. It doesn’t apply to investors who hold gold ETFs in a tax-preferred retirement account, like an IRA.

There are three long-term capital-gains rates: 0%, 15% and 20%, depending on an investor’s annual income.

Short-term capital gains, which apply to assets held for a year or less, are different. Profit on such sales is taxed at ordinary income tax rates, like those that apply to wages, for example. There are seven marginal tax rates, ranging from 10% up to 37%.

Collectibles are taxed like short-term capital gains but are capped at 28%. That means an investor in the 32%, 35% or 37% income tax brackets wouldn’t own more than 28% in long-term capital gains on collectibles profits.

Meanwhile, capital gains for futures contracts are assessed based on a 60/40 tax structure, said Levine. That is, 60% of their profits are taxed as long-term capital gains, and the remaining 40% as short-term capital gains.

In the case of gold futures funds, here’s how the math works for someone in the top tax bracket: 60% of 20%, which is the top long-term rate for capital gains, is 12%; and 40% of 37%, the top marginal income tax rate, is 14.8%.

Added together, that’s a top capital-gains rate of 26.8% for gold futures contracts, Levine said.

While some higher-income investors might think it’s a better idea from a tax perspective to buy gold futures funds, there are also downsides, he said.

For example, such investors would get a K-1 tax form since the funds are often structured as partnerships, Levine said. That could make it more challenging and costly to file an annual tax return, he said.