Korean brokerages halt U.S. market access after platform crashes

Finance

Korean brokerages halt U.S. market access after platform crashes

Published: 06 Aug. 2024, 16:40 Updated: 06 Aug. 2024, 19:18

KIM JU-YEON
kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr

A screen displays stock prices at the New York Stock Exchange in New York on Monday. [EPA/YONHAP]

Domestic brokerage firms have suspended trading for some U.S. stocks on Tuesday after Monday’s stock vulnerability led to a system error in the execution venue that powers buying and selling of U.S. shares for overseas brokers.

Major brokers including Mirae Asset Securities, KB Securities, NH Investment & Securities and Hi Investment Securities said Tuesday they would not offer alternative trading for the day as Blue Ocean ATS, the Maryland-based platform that facilitates overnight trading in the United States, was down.

Blue Ocean ATS is the sole trading platform for Korean brokers for U.S. markets. Brian Hyndman, CEO of the platform’s parent company, Blue Ocean Technologies, said in an email that overnight trading has been suspended and would not be running when the U.S. markets open Tuesday morning, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This was to fix an operational outage that occurred during trading on U.S. indexes Monday morning after investors went on a massive selling spree.

Services are expected to resume as usual from 5 p.m. on Tuesday for U.S. premarket trading.

Trading of U.S. stocks on Monday also finished early in line with Blue Ocean’s request. The platform reportedly told all Korean brokerage firms that all market orders after 2:45 p.m. would be canceled.

Global stocks tanked Monday as fears grew over a potential recession in the United States and poorer-than-expected earnings from Big Tech companies.

The plunge prompted the Korean Exchange to activate trading curbs for the benchmark Kospi and the Kosdaq for the sixth time in history during trading.

BY KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]