time now for an in-depth look at the market news this afternoon and
for that i'm joined on the line by dr kim sewan professor of economics at ewa
women's university professor kim good afternoon thank you for coming on today
well oil prices as we heard just a minute ago 130 dollars a barrel overnight uh since coming
down from that level but that was the highest uh in a very long time uh 2008 when oil hit
137 dollars a barrel u.s lawmakers it seems though want to ban russian oil which
would send prices soaring even higher though the byte administration it's not
clear if they're completely sold on that idea what's happening with oil prices professor
geopolitical factors are dominating international uh oil uh recently dubai crude oil
price increased up to 120 dollars per barrel level from 92 dollars per barrel of the before russia's
invasion into ukraine the price of oil jumped more than ten dollars a barrel monday as the
conflicts of inuklan uh deepened amid mounting calls for harsher sanctions against russia
uh oil prices came under additional pressure after libya's national oil company said on armed group
had shut down two crucial oil fields the move caused the country's daily oil output to drop by
000 uh barrels per day uh and and u.s house representative speaker nancy
pelosi said the house was exploring legislation to further isolate russia by banning the imports
of this oil and energy products into u.s all these mean a global shortages of oil and until the end
of the world in ukraine there is a possibility that oil price reaches higher than we expect now
like over 140 dollars per barrel higher fuel costs are devastating for korea which imports almost
all this energy well that leads to higher prices all around and all this uh it does seem uh
is the cause of wall street uh seeing stocks plunge overnight um more than three and a half
percent for the nasdaq with its tech companies what's the story in the global equity markets
us markets were adjusted in a larger scale to downside on monday uh the dow
jones industrial average dropped 2.4 percent and and the nasdaq composite also slumped 3.6
uh the dow jones industrial average made a 10 decline from january's high to close in correction
territory for the first time in two years as surging oil prices heightened uh concerns about
inflation and economic growth the tech heavy nasa composite falling into contraction regime
by declining to 20 below its november high last year today's top benchmark in asia pacific region
fell sharply too with japan's nikkei at 1.7 to close its lowest since november 2020. the mainland
china's shanghai index and hong kong's hong kong index was fell more than 1.5 percent today
well korean stocks continuing to fall today as well but not as much as some other markets shares
of samsung electronics closed below 70 000 won not all the big names were down though and there were
some bright spots like biopharmaceuticals tell us about the domestic market
domestic markets have retreated over three straight trading days including today
as you said i've been even with negative returns for domestic markets today domestic markets did
relatively well compared to other major markets the benchmark cost be it we traded one point one
percent and costs have also lost 1.3 today as the worst situation worsens in ukraine and longer than
expected world is gaining momentum uh domestic market is much affected by ukraine or like
other markets most of large caps stocks traded lower today samsung electronic lost 0.9 percent
and the second largest capstock lg energy solution also lost 0.9 today uh investors particularly
foreign investors let both of cosby and kostas marquez retreat by about 550 billion won net sales
well the korean currency has been depreciating somewhat sharply against the u.s dollar recently
now the exchange rate above 1231 to the dollar some expect that could reach 12.50
what's driving the exchange rate higher and how might that affect the economy
when geopolitical factors dominate financial markets investors fear demands more u.s dollars
because the greenback is seen as a haven asset for its status as a as the world reserve currency so
the world in ukraine is quickly raising the value of u.s dollars over almost all currencies now the
one dollar exchange rate has increased about 41 compared to before ukraine were
also there has been two months of trade deficit until january in korea this was another factor
that raised one dollar exchange rate as of now it is quite difficult to forecast
the path of one dollar exchange rate because of uncertainties of ukraine worth but actually this
higher one dollar exchange rate is a good news to boost up korean export which is the strongest
driving force to recover korean economy after a pandemic right well finally professor the
price of gold continues to rise uh and just on the cusp of two thousand dollars an ounce
now the highest it's been since about mid-2020 what might we expect to see happen with gold
uh gold price actually has been pretty stable and weak uh before the ukraine work
but as we talked about investors fear on ukraine world rallies all safe haven assets including gold
on monday gold rose 1.5 percent to 1994 per tri owns its highest settled value since august 2020
before the ukraine were gold was traded around 1880 uh dollars per trillion but its price moved
up by 114 dollars per triumph in less than three weeks since it is a very difficult to expect
the world in ukraine the gold price will be more volatile until the world settles down
uh it does seem that way professor we'll have to leave it there for today though thank you
as always for sharing your insights with us we appreciate it thank you very much kevin