South Korea’s stock exchange pauses program trading for five minutes as the Kospi index falls sharply amid broader Asian market declines.
South Korea’s Korea Exchange activated its sidecar mechanism, halting program trading for five minutes after the Kospi index dropped 5% in early trading. The move follows weaker openings across Asian equities, driven by declines on Wall Street and ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Hormuz Strait.
The Kospi’s decline aligns with broader regional weakness, though Japan’s June machine orders surged 16.9% year-over-year, exceeding expectations of 10.8%. Market sentiment remains fragile as investors await July’s FOMC minutes and monitor U.S.-Canada tariff negotiations ahead of a midnight deadline.
Oil prices climbed to a three-week high as Iran adopted an offensive stance, denying UAE missile accusations while Iraq proposed alternative export routes to bypass the Hormuz bottleneck.