{"id":64265,"date":"2026-07-05T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T21:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-financial-briefing-south-korea-launches-24-hour-won-trading-amid-geopolitical-shifts\/64265\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T21:38:15","slug":"global-financial-briefing-south-korea-launches-24-hour-won-trading-amid-geopolitical-shifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/global-financial-briefing-south-korea-launches-24-hour-won-trading-amid-geopolitical-shifts\/64265\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Financial Briefing: South Korea Launches 24-Hour Won Trading Amid Geopolitical Shifts"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>South Korea officially launched 24-hour KRW\/USD trading on July 6, 2026<\/strong>, a landmark reform aimed at securing <strong>MSCI Developed Market<\/strong> status and reducing reliance on offshore NDF markets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The UK&#39;s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)<\/strong> is calling for expanded powers to oversee <strong>Artificial Intelligence (AI)<\/strong> risks, warning that current &quot;wait-and-see&quot; approaches could destabilize the financial sector.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Canada is expected to announce a winner for its $60 billion (86 billion CAD) submarine contract<\/strong> as early as Monday, choosing between <strong>Germany&#39;s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems<\/strong> and <strong>South Korea&#39;s Hanwha Ocean<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Russian hacking group APT28<\/strong> has reportedly infiltrated the email accounts of <strong>UK government and Foreign Office officials<\/strong> using sophisticated DNS hijacking techniques.<\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. President Donald Trump<\/strong> is set to meet Ukrainian President <strong>Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/strong> at a high-stakes <strong>NATO summit in Ankara<\/strong>, amid ongoing tensions over defense spending and the conflict in Iran.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Markets &amp; Finance<\/h2>\n<p><strong>South Korea<\/strong> has transitioned to a near 24-hour trading cycle for the <strong>Korean Won (KRW)<\/strong> against the <strong>U.S. Dollar<\/strong>, operating from 6 a.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Saturday. This shift, which eliminates the previous 2 a.m. Seoul time cutoff, is designed to align the domestic market with <strong>New York<\/strong> trading hours and attract more global institutional investors. Analysts believe this move is the final major hurdle for South Korea to be upgraded from &quot;Emerging&quot; to &quot;Developed&quot; status by <strong>MSCI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In the United Kingdom, the <strong>Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)<\/strong> has intensified its call for greater regulatory authority over <strong>AI<\/strong> in financial services. A recent report highlights that over <strong>75% of UK financial firms<\/strong> are already utilizing AI for core functions, yet regulators lack the specific &quot;stress-testing&quot; powers needed to manage systemic risks. The FCA is pushing for the ability to oversee third-party AI vendors directly to prevent a &quot;single point of failure&quot; in the financial ecosystem.<\/p>\n<h2>Defense &amp; Geopolitics<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/strong> is poised to award a massive submarine contract, valued at up to <strong>60 trillion won ($39 billion USD)<\/strong> for construction and maintenance. <strong>Germany&#39;s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (<a href=\"\/stock\/TKA\">TKA<\/a>)<\/strong> has pledged an <strong>$86 billion investment<\/strong> in Canada if selected, while <strong>South Korea&#39;s Hanwha Ocean (<a href=\"\/stock\/042660\">042660<\/a>)<\/strong> is touting its rapid production capabilities. The decision is critical for the <strong>Royal Canadian Navy<\/strong> as it seeks to replace its aging Victoria-class fleet with 12 new diesel-electric submarines.<\/p>\n<p>On the diplomatic front, <strong>President Donald Trump<\/strong> arrives at the <strong>NATO summit in Turkey<\/strong> this week for a pivotal meeting with <strong>Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/strong>. The summit comes on the heels of an <strong>85-minute phone call<\/strong> between Trump and <strong>Vladimir Putin<\/strong>, where the leaders discussed a potential &quot;Ukrainian settlement.&quot; Allied leaders remain wary as the U.S. continues to pressure European nations to increase defense spending while simultaneously cutting U.S. troop levels on the continent.<\/p>\n<h2>Cybersecurity &amp; Energy<\/h2>\n<p>A major cyberattack attributed to Russian state-sponsored actors has targeted the <strong>UK Foreign Office<\/strong>. According to reports from <em>The Telegraph<\/em>, hackers successfully accessed sensitive email data, raising concerns about the security of government communications. This follows a previous breach involving <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock\/MSFT\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"18\" title=\"Stock: MSFT\">Microsoft<\/a> (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>)<\/strong> systems that also exposed government-related data earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>In energy news, <strong>Iran<\/strong> has reportedly begun talks with Japanese refiners, including <strong>Idemitsu Kosan (<a href=\"\/stock\/5019\">5019<\/a>)<\/strong>, to resume oil exports under a temporary U.S. sanctions waiver. The <strong>Idemitsu Maru<\/strong>, a very large crude carrier, recently became one of the first Japan-linked vessels to transit the <strong>Strait of Hormuz<\/strong> since the outbreak of the Iran war. Japanese experts are urging the government to diversify energy supplies as Tehran attempts to use historic ties to drive a wedge between <strong>Japan<\/strong> and the <strong>United States<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Aviation Incident<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Kenya Airways (<a href=\"\/stock\/KQ\">KQ<\/a>)<\/strong> flight <strong>KQ 002D<\/strong>, en route from <strong>Nairobi to New York<\/strong>, was forced to return to its origin on July 5 after experiencing a <strong>flight control spoiler malfunction<\/strong> over Chad. The crew elected to turn back for a technical evaluation following precautionary safety checks. No injuries were reported, and the airline is conducting a full investigation into the mechanical failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways South Korea officially launched 24-hour KRW\/USD trading on July 6, 2026, a landmark reform aimed at securing MSCI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[33,3703,4388,5035,5041,5230,5459,5580,9426],"class_list":["post-64265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-msft","tag-ai","tag-financial-markets","tag-cybersecurity","tag-nato","tag-defense","tag-fca","tag-krw","tag-tkms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}