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Economy & Finance

South Korea

South Korea faced political turmoil as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law decree was overturned by lawmakers, sparking instability fears in the 13th-largest global economy. The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF dropped to a 52-week low before recovering slightly, closing down 1.6%. The ETF saw heavy trading, with volumes exceeding 10 times the 30-day average. U.S.-traded shares of major South Korean firms, including Korea Electric Power and Coupang, also fell. The declaration, South Korea’s first martial law since 1980, restricted political activities but was swiftly overturned by the National Assembly. The Korea Exchange announced emergency measures, while the won weakened against the dollar.

Technology

Microsoft

Microsoft faces a lawsuit in the UK alleging over £1 billion in damages for charging higher fees to businesses using competitors’ cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. The claim accuses Microsoft of leveraging its dominance in cloud-based server software to pressure organizations into using its Azure platform by imposing steeper costs on rivals' infrastructure. The lawsuit, led by competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, aims to expose alleged anti-competitive practices and seek compensation for affected UK businesses. This development coincides with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority exploring remedies to address similar practices in the cloud sector. Microsoft has not commented on the lawsuit.

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