PRE-MARKET JAPANESE AND SOUTH KOREAN STOCKS NEWS: Samsung Electronics Q3 prelim. oper profit surged 783% Y/Y but missed estimates

JAPAN Japan Airlines (9201 JT) - Alaska Air Group (ALK) said it plans to triple its international routes to 15 destinations by 2030, with Asia a key focus and its partnership with Japan Airlines expected to support the expansion. (Nikkei) Shoko Chukin Bank - Co. plans to connect Japanese small and midsize enterprises with US artificial intelligence startups, including portfolio companies of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm tied to the bank. (Nikkei) Other News The Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to remove nearly 700 companies and add 35 in the first major reshuffle of the TOPIX index, reducing the number of constituents by about 40% to 986 stocks. (Nikkei) SOUTH KOREA LG Energy Solution (373220 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) prelim. oper. profit 756.0bln (exp. 342.81bln, prev. 601.3bln Y/Y), rev. 9.64tln (exp. 8.94tln, prev. 5.70tln Y/Y), while Co. signed a binding four-year offtake agreement with Elevra Lithium for 240k dry metric tonnes of spodumene concentrate from a Canadian mine to support North American EV and ESS demand. (Newswires/PR Newswire) Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) prelim. oper. profit rose 783% Y/Y to 107.4tln (exp. 108.7tln), rev. rose 126.6% Y/Y to 195tln (exp. 199tln), while its HBM4E 12-layer product reportedly passed quality verification by NVIDIA (NVDA) and major hyperscaler clients at the end of September, although supply volumes, contract sizes and mass-production timing remain unconfirmed. (Newswires) SK Hynix (000660 KS) - Co. selected Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters for the planned US IPO of Solidigm, which is slated for next year. (Newswires) Other News Korea Exchange shelved plans to delist some small-cap stocks after a court upheld injunctions in favour of two companies facing delisting under tightened market-capitalisation rules. (Yonhap)