{"id":73397,"date":"2024-12-04T18:22:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T07:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=73397"},"modified":"2025-11-10T20:51:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:51:00","slug":"wednesday-4th-december-2024-south-korean-markets-plunge-amid-political-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wednesday-4th-december-2024-south-korean-markets-plunge-amid-political-turmoil\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday 4th December 2024: South Korean Markets Plunge Amid Political Turmoil\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 0.08%, Shanghai Composite up 0.07%, Hang Seng up 0.34% ASX down 0.38%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2670.35 (0.14%), Silver at $31.49 (0.18%), Brent Oil at $73.74 (0.26%), WTI Oil at $70.27 (0.19%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.231, UK 10-year yield at 4.242, Germany 10-year yield at 2.055<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) JOLTS Job Openings 7.74M vs 7.51M expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><br \/>South Korean markets faced a turbulent opening on Wednesday following a day of political unrest. President Yoon Suk Yeol briefly imposed martial law before lifting it, triggering a 1.8% drop in the Kospi index and a 2.4% decline in the Kosdaq. Protestors and opposition parties intensified their calls for Yoon\u2019s resignation, while a coalition of opposition lawmakers is set to propose an impeachment bill. Reports also indicated that Yoon\u2019s chief of staff and senior secretaries have offered to resign collectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to fears of financial instability, the Bank of Korea held an emergency meeting, pledging measures to stabilize the market. It committed to boosting short-term liquidity and providing special loans if needed. Additionally, South Korea\u2019s financial regulator announced its readiness to deploy a 10 trillion won ($7.07 billion) stock market stabilization fund. Foreign exchange authorities were also suspected of intervening in the currency market to limit the Korean won\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The political developments in South Korea reverberated across Asia-Pacific markets. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 and Topix indices both fell by 0.4%, while Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng index edged up 0.1%. Mainland China\u2019s CSI 300 slipped 0.2%, and Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 declined 0.38% as slower-than-expected third-quarter GDP growth weighed on sentiment. Elevated borrowing costs and persistent inflation were cited as key factors affecting Australia\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the U.S., South Korea&#8217;s political turmoil impacted the iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY), which tracks South Korean stocks. The ETF plunged 7% to a 52-week low before recovering to close down 1.6%. Meanwhile, the S&amp;P 500 inched up 0.05%, the Nasdaq gained 0.4%, and the Dow dropped 0.2%, reflecting mixed investor sentiment amid the global uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>01:15 PM GMT &#8211; USD ADP Non &#8211; Farm Employment Change<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>03:00 PM GMT &#8211; USD ISM Services PMI<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>06:45 PM GMT &#8211; USD Fed Chair Powell Speaks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: South Korean markets faced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73401,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73397\/revisions\/73401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}