Korean stocks fell Wednesday as foreign investors offloaded shares across the board and the market turned cautious ahead of Samsung Electronics’ preliminary third-quarter earnings report, in contrast to Wall Street’s record-setting session overnight. The benchmark KOSPI opened at 6,864.25, down 1.11 percent from the previous close, according to the Korea Exchange. After briefly moving higher early in the session, the main index turned lower and remained in negative territory before closing at 6,803.90, down 1.98 percent. Foreign investors and institutions were net sellers of 2.61 trillion won ($1.95 billion) and 672.6 billion won, respectively, while retail investors purchased a net 2.5608 trillion won. The gains on Wall Street overnight failed to carry over to the Korean stock market. The three major U.S. indexes rose on steadier oil prices and expectations for a strong third-quarter earnings season among blue-chip, industry-leading companies. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at record highs, with each of the indexes ending at 7,818.93 and 27,599.89. Analysts attributed t