On the 18th, the won started in the 1,477 range against the U.S. dollar.
In the Seoul foreign exchange market that day, the won-dollar rate opened at 1,477.3 won, down 2.5 won from the previous trading day's weekly transaction closing price as of 3:30 p.m. It was up 2.8 won from the early-morning close of 1,474.5 won.
The rise in the exchange rate was due to continued foreign selling of stocks. When foreigners sell Korean stocks, demand to convert won into dollars emerges, pushing the rate higher. As of 9:22 a.m., foreigners were net sellers of 13.6 billion won in the Korea Exchange (KOSPI). On the 15th, they sold more than 1 trillion won, continuing a selling streak.
The "artificial intelligence (AI) bubble theory" spreading on the New York stock market is also weighing on the domestic market. Overnight, a report that Oracle, a major IT company, had broken off talks on a $10 billion data center investment it had been pursuing with Blue Owl Capital dented investor sentiment.
Oracle is a representative AI-related stock and its share price had risen sharply recently, but concerns about capital soundness emerged after it became known that more funds than expected had been poured into data center investments. Accordingly, the scheduled completion date for the data center, initially set for 2027, was postponed to 2028.
On the 17th (local time), Oracle shares closed at $178.46, down 5.4% from the previous day. The same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.47%, while the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 and the Nasdaq composite plunged 1.16% and 1.81%, respectively.
As the exchange rate neared the 1,480-won level, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Koo Yun-cheol convened a meeting to review market conditions and examined trends in the financial and foreign exchange markets. The meeting was attended by Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong, Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Eog-weon, and Financial Supervisory Service Governor Lee Chan-jin.