Big money tilts to EM and Korea

BlackRock has turned bullish on emerging-market stocks again, and South Korea is a big reason. (bloomberg.com) The asset manager shifted emerging-market equities to “modest overweight” from neutral in its April 13 weekly commentary, alongside a similar upgrade on U.S. stocks. It said it funded the move by cutting exposure to front-end European rates, or shorter-dated euro interest-rate bets. (blackrock.com) Wei Li, BlackRock’s global chief investment strategist, said South Korean stocks stand out because the country is tied closely to the semiconductor supply chain and demand for artificial-intelligence hardware. Bloomberg reported BlackRock sees stronger earnings momentum there as profit forecasts rise. (bloomberg.com) The call lands as BlackRock posted $130 billion in total net inflows for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, led by a record first quarter for iShares exchange-traded funds. The firm said trailing 12-month net inflows reached $744 billion and organic base-fee growth hit 10%. (blackrock.com) BlackRock’s 2026 outlook has centered on artificial intelligence as a market force reshaping growth, capital spending and corporate profits. In that framework, countries that make chips and memory components have become a more direct way to bet on the AI buildout than broad emerging-market indexes alone. (blackrock.com) South Korea fits that trade because its stock market is dominated by exporters such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, two of the world’s biggest memory-chip makers. Rising demand for high-bandwidth memory, a type of advanced chip used in AI servers, has pushed investors back toward Korean equities in 2026. (bloomberg.com) BlackRock is not making a one-way risk call across every asset class. In the same April 13 note, it said it still prefers selective risk-taking and kept emphasizing themes tied to defense, power and infrastructure while trimming front-end European rates. (blackrock.com) The firm’s first-quarter results showed the money is arriving across more than one business line. BlackRock reported record ETF inflows, active and private-markets inflows, 27% year-over-year revenue growth and a 22% rise in technology-services and subscription revenue. (blackrock.com) For now, the message from the world’s largest asset manager is that the AI trade is no longer just a U.S. megacap story. BlackRock is steering new risk toward emerging markets, with South Korea near the center of that bet. (bloomberg.com)