South Korea Stock Market May Head South Again On Friday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Thursday snapped a two-day slide in which it had tumbled almost 160 points or 4 percent. The KOSPI sits just above the 4,000-point plateau although it may hand back those gains on Friday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is soft on a declining outlook for interest rates. The European markets were up and the U.S. bourses were down and the Asian markets figure to follow the latter lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply higher on Thursday following gains from the technology stocks and steel companies, while the chemicals were mixed and the auto and financial sectors were soft.

For the day, the index jumped 75.34 points or 1.92 percent to finish at 4,004.85 after trading between 4,001.31 and 4,059.37. Volume was 355.8 million shares worth 14.9 trillion won. There were 749 gainers and 141 decliners.

Among the actives, KB Financial slumped 0.82 percent, while Hana Financial and Hyundai Motor both sank 0.76 percent, Samsung Electronics surged 4.25 percent, Samsung SDI jumped 1.85 percent, LG Electronics rose 0.23 percent, SK Hynix strengthened 1.60 percent, Naver accelerated 3.42 percent, LG Chem shed 0.51 percent, Lotte Chemical added 0.38 percent, SK Innovation gained 0.51 percent, POSCO Holdings rallied 2.55 percent, KEPCO spiked 3.60 percent, Hyundai Mobis perked 0.17 percent, Kia Motors dropped 0.96 percent and Shinhan Financial and SK Telecom were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is negative as the major averages were unable to hold early gains on Thursday and finished deeply under water.

The Dow stumbled 386.51 points or 0.84 percent to finish at 45,752.26, while the NASDAQ plummeted 486.18 points or 2.15 percent to close at 22,078.05 and the S&P 500 dropped 103.40 points or 1.56 percent to end at 6,538.76.

The early rally on Wall Street was a positive reaction to highly anticipated earnings news from market leader and AI darling Nvidia (NVDA), which reported better than expected third quarter results and providing upbeat guidance - although the stock tumbled later in the day.

The subsequent downturn by the broader markets reflected concerns about the outlook for interest rates after the release of the Labor Department's long-delayed jobs report for September. While the report showed an unexpected uptick by the unemployment rate, job growth in September far exceeded economist estimates.

The mixed data further eroded confidence that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by another quarter point in December. While CME Group's FedWatch Tool indicates the chances of a rate cut next month have risen to 39.8 percent from 30.1 percent on Wednesday, that figure is down sharply from 98.8 percent a month ago.

Crude oil prices edged lower on Thursday as investors assessed reports of renewed efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war ahead of the U.S. deadline. West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down $0.27 or 0.44 percent at $59.18 per barrel.