Kospi Plunges 7% as Inflation Fears Rattle Global Markets
The kospi plunges headline dominated global markets Thursday as South Korea’s benchmark index tumbled more than 7%, leading a broad Asian sell-off triggered by hotter-than-expected US inflation data.
The Kospi dropped around 7.5% to about 5,550 — its seventh straight losing session and nearly 35% below the record high it set in June — as technology heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix sank roughly 9.5% and 11.4%. The plunge was so sharp that South Korea’s exchange operator triggered a five-minute trading halt on programme sell orders.
Tech Stocks Lead the Rout
Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled nearly 5%, with OpenAI investor SoftBank dropping 9.4%, chip-equipment maker Tokyo Electron down 7.3%, and memory-chip maker Kioxia losing 11.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1%, Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 3%, and Shanghai’s CSI 300 slipped about 1.4% as the sell-off spread across the region.
The declines followed a punishing session on Wall Street on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% — its worst day since late July — while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slid 1.9%, its steepest drop in nearly three months, as AI-linked stocks sank. Nvidia lost 3.2%, Broadcom gave up 3.1%, and AMD declined 5.7%.
Hot CPI Data Reignites Rate-Hike Bets
The trigger for the global sell-off was US consumer-price data: prices rose 3.7% year over year in September, up from 3.4% in August and above economists’ forecasts — the fastest inflation pace in five months. Traders ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates again before year-end, putting technology and AI-related stocks under further pressure.
US futures stayed under pressure Thursday morning. S&P 500 futures shed about 0.3%, Nasdaq-100 futures dropped roughly 0.8%, while Dow futures edged slightly higher.
Investors now await more signals on the inflation path: the September producer-price report, new retail sales figures, and weekly jobless claims are all due Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET.
*Source: CNBC*