![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/rcv.YNA.20260818.PYH2026081813920001300_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Korea")
A display board at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, shows the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes on the 18th. The Kospi closed at 6,869.83, down 108.11 points (1.55%) from the previous session. Yonhap News<\/p>\nA display board at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, shows the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes on the 18th. The Kospi closed at 6,869.83, down 108.11 points (1.55%) from the previous session. Yonhap News<\/p>\n
[[B1]] South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI hit a wall of rising U.S. Treasury yields even as favorable factors \u2014 the return of foreign investors, a steadier currency and improving conditions in the semiconductor industry \u2014 lined up in its favor. Although foreign investors bought Korean shares for a fifth straight session and the won firmed to the low 1,400s against the dollar, a jump in long-term U.S. interest rates and Middle East oil jitters weighed on investor sentiment, leaving the KOSPI short of the 7,000 level. Analysts pointed to Nvidia’s earnings release and the Jackson Hole symposium, both due late this month, as short-term factors likely to sway the local market.<\/p>\n
[[B2]] The KOSPI closed at 6,869.83 on the 18th, down 108.11 points, or 1.55%, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said. The index opened 2.15% higher at 7,127.77 and climbed as high as 7,216.62 intraday, fueling hopes, but gave back all its gains in the afternoon in a session that started strong and faded. At one point the index fell as low as 6,788.78, making its daily trading range of 427.84 points the widest so far in August. The tech-heavy KOSDAQ also ended down 30.45 points, or 3.52%, at 834.20. With the U.S. 30-year Treasury yield rising to around 5.32% and the 10-year topping 4.72%, climbing global bond yields sapped upward momentum across Asian markets, including Korea. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Taiwan’s TAIEX fell 2.54% and 1.20%, respectively.<\/p>\n
[[B3]] The negative factors surrounding the local market had recently been easing one by one. Foreign investors posted net purchases on the main board for five straight sessions from the 11th through the 18th. Large inflows of 2 trillion to 3 trillion won a day came in on the 12th through the 14th, and they bought a net 86.1 billion won worth of shares on the 18th as well. The won also eased the currency burden by falling to 1,411.8 per dollar. On top of that, expanding artificial intelligence (AI) investment and hopes for improving memory-chip conditions revived sentiment toward semiconductors. Kim Tae-hong, CEO of GrowthHill Asset Management, said the moves reflected “the fact that Korean stocks have fallen a lot, making their undervaluation more attractive, along with positive news related to semiconductors and some easing of concerns about the exchange rate.”<\/p>\n
[[B4]] This time, however, U.S. Treasury yields proved to be the drag. The 30-year Treasury yield rose above 5.3%, its highest level in 19 years, since 2007. Analysts interpreted the move as the result of pressure on long-term supply, as heavier Treasury issuance tied to the widening U.S. fiscal deficit combined with a rise in corporate bond issuance by companies expanding investment in AI and data centers. The possibility that Japanese institutional investors could shift funds into their home bonds instead of U.S. Treasurys, amid rising Japanese long-term rates, was also cited as a factor pushing long-term yields higher. Lee Jin-woo, head of the research center at Meritz Securities, said that “rising Treasury yields mean the liquidity environment is deteriorating,” adding that “as Big Tech’s capital spending expands beyond free cash flow into debt financing, sensitivity to interest rates has become far higher than in the past.”<\/p>\n
[[B5]] Growing geopolitical uncertainty involving the United States and Iran was also cited as a reason the local market’s upward momentum stalled. With a 60-day ceasefire between the two sides expiring without results and tensions escalating, Brent crude rose into the $91-a-barrel range and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) into the $85 range. Some analysts said that concern over how higher oil prices could reignite inflation and add to upward pressure on long-term yields had curbed appetite for risk assets such as stocks. Lee Young-gon, head of the research center at Toss Securities, said that while “a steadier exchange rate is positive, the burden of rising oil prices and geopolitical risk continues,” explaining that “we need to watch whether higher oil prices feed through to inflation, which is also a variable linked to U.S. Treasury yields.”<\/p>\n
[[B6]] Securities analysts see interest rates as the key factor determining whether the KOSPI can rise further in the near term. Still, with little basis to conclude that the semiconductor cycle itself has turned down, next week’s Nvidia earnings release and the Jackson Hole symposium are seen as major turning points that will shape both semiconductor sentiment and the direction of rates. Park Yeon-joo, head of the research center at Mirae Asset Securities, said that “U.S. Treasury yields are rising, which is something that needs monitoring,” adding that “since rising rates can be a factor constraining further gains in the market, we need to watch how things unfold.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A display board at Hana Bank’s dealing room in Jung-gu, Seoul, shows the Kospi and Kosdaq indexes on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[896,63812,337,681,335,864,2163,279,14369],"class_list":["post-123240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea-exchange","tag-foreign-investors","tag-jackson-hole","tag-korea-exchange","tag-korean-stock-market","tag-kospi","tag-krx","tag-oil-prices","tag-semiconductor-stocks","tag-u-s-treasury-yields"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}