Bond Yields Shock the Market, Kospi Trips a Sidecar and Drops 5%

Kospi just slid to the 6,507 line, down 5.28%, and that drop widened another 1.39 points from my last check-in. The bond-yield spike that rattled Wall Street overnight rolled straight into Seoul this morning, and it got bad enough to trip a sidecar — the automatic sell-order circuit breaker and all. Institutions bailed with a hefty net sell, but retail traders are out there bargain-hunting to defend the 6,500 line, and foreigners kept buying on both boards. Overnight in New York (Aug 18 close) the S&P was already down 0.69% and the Nasdaq 1.33%, so today's plunge is really that same tremor getting louder. My Microsoft, Nvidia, Freeport-McMoRan, and Pungsan positions are all still sitting green, and from here I'm just watching whether these yields cool off before the closing bell.