South Korea's KOSPI swung from a 2.15% opening gain to close at 6,869.83 on Aug. 18, down 108.11 points, or 1.55%, after briefly touching 7,216.62 in its widest intraday range since early August. Institutional selling of roughly ₩784.9 billion outweighed modest foreign buying reported at about ₩86.1 billion to ₩91.4 billion and retail buying of about ₩731.3 billion, while the KOSDAQ dropped 3.52% to 834.20. Analysts linked the reversal to tighter liquidity as long-dated U.S. Treasury yields and Japanese government bond yields rose, oil climbed on Middle East tensions and stalled U.S.-Iran diplomacy, and China's July industrial output and retail sales missed forecasts; investors are now watching Nvidia's earnings and the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole symposium.