The South Korean won hovered around 1,347 per dollar, extending its slide as a global sell-off in semiconductor stocks intensified risk aversion and drove investors out of the region’s tech-heavy markets. Mounting concerns over stretched AI valuations, elevated borrowing costs, and the substantial funding required for large-scale AI infrastructure have fueled a sustained decline in US chip stocks, spilling over into South Korean equities and pressuring the won.
Foreign investors offloaded roughly $1.8 billion worth of KOSPI shares on Thursday morning alone, pushing October net outflows above $10 billion and boosting demand for dollars as capital left local markets. At the same time, hotter-than-expected US inflation—annual CPI rose 3.7% in September versus a 3.6% consensus—has reinforced expectations of further Federal Reserve tightening, heightening uncertainty across global financial markets. Even so, a retreat in US Treasury yields and lower oil prices have helped cap the won’s losses.
