Dealers work at the dealing room of the headquarters of Hana Bank in Seoul on the 21st, where the won/dollar exchange rate recorded 1,475.6 won, up 7.7 won from the previous day, as of the closing price at 3:30 PM. Yonhap News

The domestic financial market experienced a severe downturn on the 21st, with some calling it a "Black Friday," as risk aversion spread due to concerns about overvaluation in global stock markets.

On this day, the KOSPI closed at 3,853.26, down 151.59 points (3.79%) in the KOSPI market.

Top market capitalization stocks, particularly in the semiconductor sector, saw a broad decline, with Samsung Electronics [005930] falling 5.77% and SK Hynix [000660] down 8.76%.

Foreign investors led the index's decline, recording a net selling of 2.823 trillion won in a single day. Individual investors, engaging in "averaging down," bought stocks worth 2.295 trillion won.

Foreign net sales this month have exceeded 10 trillion won.

The KOSDAQ index also closed at 863.95, down 27.99 points (3.14%).

The re-ignition of the "AI bubble" theory and the sell-off in the U.S. stock market, primarily in technology stocks, appear to have negatively impacted the domestic financial market.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.84%, the S&P 500 index declined 1.56%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 2.15%.

Despite NVIDIA, a leading AI stock, reporting an "earnings surprise" for the third quarter, the market sentiment was not enough to dispel widespread overvaluation concerns.

The increasing expectation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on December 10th, in the range of 3.75-4.00%, was also cited as a negative factor.

Fed Governor Lisa Cook's remarks during a university speech, stating, "The possibility of a decline in overvalued asset prices has increased, and that is my current impression," further strengthened these expectations.

The U.S. September jobs report, released overnight, also failed to boost expectations for interest rate cuts. While non-farm payrolls increased by 119,000 in September, exceeding market expectations, the unemployment rate also rose to 4.4%.

According to CME's FedWatch, the market is currently pricing in a 64.6% probability of the U.S. Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged.

The exchange rate reached its highest level in over seven months.

On this day, the weekly closing price of the won against the U.S. dollar in the Seoul foreign exchange market (as of 3:30 PM) was 1,475.6 won, up 7.7 won from the previous day.

Just before the market close, it surged to 1,476.0 won.

This was the highest level since April 9th (1,484.1 won), when the shock of the U.S. Trump administration's tariff hikes and the U.S.-China trade dispute was significantly felt, according to the closing price.

The continued strength of the dollar and weakness of the yen further exacerbated upward pressure on the exchange rate.

The Dollar Index, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of six major currencies, stood at 100.081, down 0.16% from the previous day, but has remained above 100 for three consecutive days.

At the same time, the won/yen cross rate was 939.18 won per 100 yen, up 7.42 won from the previous day's closing rate of 931.76 won at 3:30 PM.

The yen/dollar exchange rate fell by 0.35 yen to 157.15 yen.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda's remarks in the Diet today, stating that interest rate hikes would continue based on inflation, led to a downturn in the yen/dollar exchange rate, but it is still considered to be at a high level.

The cryptocurrency market also turned red.

On Upbit, a domestic cryptocurrency exchange, the price of one Bitcoin was 127.91 million won as of 4 PM, down 1.54% from the previous day, and the lowest level since April 21st.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also fell 1.77% to 4.168 million won.

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