KOSPI · January 22, 2008
Two days when the whole world fell
-4.43%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The KOSPI in the financial crisis
early in it · 2007-10-31 → 2008-10-24, -54.54% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- January 22, 2008 — the KOSPI fell 4.43% to 1,609.02. No single cause for the day could be pinned down
- On that day and the one before, markets fell everywhere at once — not one country's news, but all of it together
- US mortgage losses were spreading into bank balance sheets, and the number grew with every disclosure
- The Fed cut sharply that day without waiting for its scheduled meeting — after Seoul had closed
- It was the second straight decline and the lowest close since May 16, 2007
- From October 31, 2007 to March 17, 2008 the episode ran -23.75%
- This was the trailer for what the autumn would bring
Sources
Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.