Top stories for the morning: Samsung lost $66 billion in value, Apple will update iPhone interface

In South Korea, Samsung was losing up to $66 billion in capitalization at the moment due to the threat of the largest strike of employees, the head of OpenAI Sam Altman appeared in court on the lawsuit of Elon Musk, and India sharply increased duties on gold and silver amid pressure on the rupee and rising energy prices. These and other topics - in our review of key events for the morning of Ma 13.

Shares of Samsung Electronics were falling more than 6% on Wednesday, causing the company's capitalization to drop by almost $66 billion, CNBC writes. The reason was the failure of negotiations with the union, which threatened an 18-day strike from Ma 21. More than 41,000 employees may take part in the protest action, demanding to increase bonuses and fix the new system of payments.

The union claims that previous mass action has already led to a drop in chip and memory production, and a full-blown strike could cost Samsung around $20 billion.

Toward the end of the trading session, the stock rebounded from the drop and began to appreciate by about 1.6% after statements from South Korean authorities, who urged the parties to urgently reach a deal given Samsung's importance to the country's economy.

The head of OpenAI Sam Altman at the trial on the lawsuit of Elon Musk said that the billionaire demanded to make him CEO of the future commercial structure of OpenAI, wanted to get a 90% stake and was not going to give up full control, reports Yahoo Finance. According to Altman, he was also concerned about the idea of linking OpenAI to Tesla, as the automaker would not be able to fulfill the company's mission of developing AI "for the benefit of humanity."

Musk's attorneys have tried to question Altman's integrity by recalling the 2023 conflict when OpenAI's board fired him for lack of candor. Musk's lawsuit could derail OpenAI's transition to a for-profit model and jeopardize the company's IPO, which it expects to go public ahead of rival Anthropic.

India has raised import duties on gold and silver to 15% from 6% after a surge in demand for precious metals and a weakening rupee, CNBC reported. The decision came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged citizens to cut back on gold purchases and save fuel amid rising energy prices and tensions in the Middle East.

India's gold imports surged in early 2026, with demand in monetary terms reaching a record $25 billion for the quarter. Analysts note that expensive energy and the country's dependence on oil imports continue to increase pressure on the trade balance and the national currency, forcing the authorities to move away from the policy of economic liberalization.

Apple in iOS 27 will radically update the iPhone interface, making the Camera app fully customizable: users will be able to choose their own location and set of controls - from flash and timer to manual exposure settings, Bloomberg writes. The company is also preparing a major redesign of Siri, turning the assistant into an AI agent with a ChatGPT-style interface and the ability to work with data and applications across the device.

The update will affect the Safari browser, Weather app, AI-powered image generation app Image Playground and system search, as well as adding new animations and redesigned navigation bars. Siri will get a separate app for the first time, support for web search with AI answers, and the ability to switch between ChatGPT, Gemini, and Apple's own services. iOS 27 is expected to be announced on June 8 at WWDC.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 1.2 percent, while the Nikkei 225 was up 0.9 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.2 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was up 0.4 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index rose 2.2 percent, while the Kosdaq fell 0.6 percent.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.6 percent.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were rising by 0.2%. Futures on Nasdaq Composite were rising by 0.44%. Exchange contracts on Dow Jones Industrial Average were almost unchanged.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor