South Korea's mom-and-pop investors are defying last week's global financial markets rout by pouring even more funds into U.S. stocks, a years-long trend that analysts and investors bet will continue due to the depressed value proposition at home. South Korean retailers have been scooping up Nvidia, Tesla Inc. and Apple shares this year fuelled in part by the worldwide AI-frenzy, a move that comes despite government efforts to boost the domestic stock market. Sunny Noh, a 49-year-old who has been investing in Tesla since 2020 and now holds about 85% of his financial assets in the electric-vehicle maker, said he sees the recent market plunge as a long-term buying opportunity.