The Morning After the Surge, KOSPI Trips on Profit-Taking

Right at the open, KOSPI slid 3.60% to 6,358.27. That's the flip side of last Friday, when foreigners and institutions piled in and drove KOSPI up an all-time 17.91% and KOSDAQ up 11.63% — today just looks like the market handing back a slice of that. Enough headlines are throwing around the word 'backwardation' and fretting over sell-side arbitrage that I'd call this the market catching its breath rather than anything more dramatic. The backdrop isn't ugly either — the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed up last Friday, and the won is strengthening too. My own book still shows Microsoft up 17.6%, Nvidia down 3.3%, and Freeport-McMoRan flat — and how much of this profit-taking gets absorbed by the close is what I'm watching today.