KOSPI May Spin Its Wheels Again On Monday

(RTTNews) - The South Korea stock market on Friday snapped the three-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 60 points or 2.2 percent to a 30-month closing high. The KOSPI now rests just beneath the 2,785-point plateau and it may remain stuck in neutral on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is weak, with oil and technology stocks likely to weigh on the markets. The European markets were down and the U.S. bourses were mixed and flat and the Asian markets figure to split the difference.

The KOSPI finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and automobile producers.

For the day, the index dropped 23.37 points or 0.83 percent to finish at 2,784.26. Volume was 617.53 million shares worth 14.12 trillion won. There were 577 decliners and 296 gainers.

Among the actives, Shinhan Financial eased 0.10 percent, while KB Financial surrendered 2.72 percent, Hana Financial shed 0.50 percent, Samsung Electronics weakened 1.96 percent, Samsung SDI sank 0.77 percent, LG Electronics dipped 0.09 percent, SK Hynix stumbled 1.47 percent, Naver rose 0.24 percent, LG Chem declined 1.66 percent, Lotte Chemical tanked 4.56 percent, S-Oil fell 0.44 percent, SK Innovation plummeted 5.70 percent, POSCO retreated 1.21 percent, SK Telecom jumped 1.95 percent, KEPCO plunged 4.08 percent, Hyundai Mobis lost 0.42 percent, Hyundai Motor tumbled 1.93 percent and Kia Motors slumped 2.07 percent.

The lead from Wall Street is soft as the major averages opened lower on Friday and ultimately finished mixed but little changed.

The Dow added 15.53 points or 0.04 percent to finish at 39,150.33, while the NASDAQ shed 32.24 points or 0.18 percent to end at 17,689.36 and the S&P 500 dipped 8.55 points or 0.16 percent to close at 5,464.62.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow jumped 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6 percent, while the NASDAQ was nearly unchanged.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came as traders assessed recent activity in the markets, which saw the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 reach new record intraday highs before turning lower.

Traders also kept an eye on shares of Nvidia (NVDA), as the AI darling has recently been a key driver of the markets. It dragged the technology shares lower after slumping 3.2 percent on Friday after briefly surpassing Microsoft (MSFT) as the world's most valuable public company.

On the economic front, the National Association of Realtors said existing home sales in the U.S. fell roughly in line with estimates in May. A separate report from the Conference Board said leading U.S. economic indicators fell more than expected last month.

Oil futures settled lower on Friday, weighed down by concerns about the outlook for global oil demand and a firm greenback. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July shed $0.56 or 0.7 percent at $80.73 a barrel for the week but gained 3 percent for the week.