Following yesterday's 'Black Monday' on South Korean markets, the country's tow major stock markets got off to an even worse start around an hour ago.
We have our Hong Yoo on the line with the latest on the market turmoil.
So, yesterday, the tech-heavy KOSDAQ plunged to a three-year low and the main benchmark KOSPI had a day to forget too.
It's Tuesday now and it seems to be getting worse, not better...
Mark, local stock markets opened lower than Monday's close with the benchmark KOSPI opening at 19-00, down 2-point-39 percent.
The KOSDAQ plunged another 2-point-58 percent.
As we are speaking, about an hour since South Korea's benchmark KOSPI and secondary market KOSDAQ has opened, KOSPI is down points or percent.
The KOSDAQ is down points or percent.
This follows a Black Monday.
According to Korea Exchange, KOSPI's aggregate value of listed stocks decreased more than 27.5 billion U.S. dollars compared to the previous market close and KOSDAQ by 12.8 billion.
The KOSDAQ dropped to the lowest level since January of 2015 on Monday, the Korea Exchange triggered a cool-off period known as a sidecar, during which all program trading is halted for 5 minutes.
Early Tuesday morning, the Korea Exchange held a market inspection conference to examine Monday's plunge.
But it wasn't just Korean stocks that suffered as Asian markets opened lower on Tuesday as well.
Japan's Nikkei dropped 2-point-79 percent to 20-134.
Wall Street also saw its worst drop of the year as China countered President Trump's tariffs by devaluing the yuan and this prompted the U.S. to designate China a currency manipulator.
The S&P 500 dropped 3 percent to 2-844 on Monday for its worst loss this year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2-point-9 percent and the Nasdaq composite fell 3-and-a half percent.
It was the worst percentage drop for all three indexes this year.
