South Korea Shares May Extend Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market has moved lower in back-to-back sessions, tumbling more than 135 points or 3.9 percent along the way. The KOSPI now sits just shy of the 3,120-point plateau and it's likely to take further damage on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is broadly negative on new U.S. tariffs, plus an extremely weak American jobs report. The European and U.S. markets were sharply lower and the Asian bourses figure to follow that lead.

The KOSPI finished sharply lower on Friday with damage across the board, especially among the financial shares, technology stocks, chemicals and automobile producers.

For the day, the index plummeted 126.03 points or 3.88 percent to finish at 3,119.41. Volume was 504.4 million shares worth 15.1 trillion won. There were 882 decliners and just 37 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial cratered 4.26 percent, while KB Financial plunged 4.42 percent, Hana Financial tumbled 3.63 percent, Samsung Electronics declined 3.50 percent, Samsung SDI crashed 5.65 percent, LG Electronics and LG Chem both contracted 3.10 percent, SK Hynix surrendered 5.67 percent, Naver stumbled 4.26 percent, Lotte Chemical slumped 3.76 percent, SK Innovation skidded 5.47 percent, POSCO Holdings plummeted 5.83 percent, SK Telecom fell 1.07 percent, KEPCO lost 5.01 percent, Hyundai Mobis sank 3.74 percent, Hyundai Motor retreated 1.41 percent and Kia Motors dropped 1.47 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is brutal as the major averages opened sharply lower on Friday and remained deep in the red throughout the session.

The Dow tumbled 542.42 points or 1.23 percent to finish at 43,588.58, while the NASDAQ tanked 472.27 points or 2.24 percent to close at 20,650.13 and the S&P 500 dropped 101.38 points or 1.60 percent to end at 6,238.01.

For the week, the Dow plummeted 2.9 percent, while the S&P sank 2.4 percent and the NASDAQ was down 2.2 percent.

The sell-off on Wall Street came amid concerns about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, as the White House announced new tariff rates on dozens of countries.

The new tariffs range from just 10 percent to as high as 41 percent, and the White House said a 40 percent levy will be imposed on goods that have been transshipped to evade applicable duties.

Negative sentiment was also generated in reaction to the closely watched Labor Department report showing much weaker than expected job growth in the month of July.

Crude oil prices fell Friday on demand concerns for potentially reduced consumption amid new tariffs from the U.S. government. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was down $1.92 or 2.77 percent at $67.34 per barrel.