We start off by taking a look at how the stocks are doing.<br />The Korean stock market opened amid a plunge in share prices in the U.S. and other major markets... over lower-than-expected sales by U.S. smartphone maker Apple... and concerns of a slowing global economy.<br />We have Kim Ji-yeon on the line for us.<br />Ji-yeon, let's start with the Korean KOSPI.<br /><br />Sure Mark.<br />According to the Korea Exchange, the nation's benchmark KOSPI started early trading slightly lower than the previous session at 19-92 on Friday.<br />This comes after it closed below the psychologically important two-thousand-mark the previous day to the lowest level in more than two years... as investor confidence waned due to concerns of a slowing global economy.<br />Institutions had sold nearly 1-hundred 50-million U.S. dollars worth of KOSPI shares in a single day on Thursday.<br />The tech heavy KOSDAQ also started zero-point-two-percent lower than yesterday's closing at the 655-level on Friday.<br />In response, senior officials of the Bank of Korea held a meeting to monitor the situation to discuss countermeasures following big declines in stock markets in the U.S. and other major countries.<br />Wall Street had tumbled Thursday on U.S. tech giant Apple's profit warning... which has sent shockwaves across global markets.<br />The Dow Jones index closed 2-point-8-percent to 22-thousand-685... while the S&P 500 lose two-and-a-half-percent to 2-thousand-448.<br />The tech-heavy Nasdaq also plunged 3-percent to 6-thousand-464.<br />Apple's stock plunged nearly 10-percent to 142 dollars, its biggest single-day drop in six years.<br />Apple's chief executive Tim Cook warned the company's first quarter revenue of the fiscal year would be about 10-percent lower than expected... at 84-billion dollars.<br />He blamed the slowing economy in China for the weaker sales figures.<br />With this, pundits went on to say that the China-U.S. trade war, and the billions of dollars in tariffs they had imposed on each other during the latter half of last year has affected Apple's business.<br />Weaker-than-expected U.S. manufacturing figures also exacerbated market anxiety... a report from the Institute for Supply Management shows the U.S. had suffered the biggest drop since 2008, the height of the financial crisis.<br />The International Monetary Fund has already forecast that China is set to record the slowest growth rate in 28<br />years in 2018 with 6-point-6-percent.<br />Officials from China and the U.S. are reportedly planning to hold meetings to hammer out a deal on trade next month... to try to turn the current trade truce into something more permanent before the deadline in March.<br />Mark?<br /><br />Thank you Ji-yeon for the report. <br />
