The Shanghai Stock Exchange Closed After Just 30 Minutes of Opening on Thursday

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By Jacob Maslow

China’s economy continued to struggle on Thursday, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange halting trading for the second time this week. Trading only lasted 30 minutes before the Shanghai Composite fell by a staggering 7.21%. The drop resulted in the circuit breaker system closing down trading for the day.

Trading was suspended after the CSI 300 fell by 5% for 15 minutes, but resumed before ultimately closing at the 7% mark.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed today with a 7.32% loss, while the Nikkei 225 lost 1.78%.

The closing of the stock exchange caused markets around the world to falter. Australia further lowered sentiment after the country announced that building approvals for November dropped 12.7%, which is far below the 3.0% drop expected. Private housing approvals also dropped on the month 0.5%.

China also announced on Wednesday that its service sector fell to its lowest level in 17 months in the month of December.

North Korea also announced that the country detonated a hydrogen bomb on Wednesday, which has further lowered sentiment in Asia. Equities markets struggled greatly as a result, and the test caused a 5.1 magnitude earthquake to be triggered, according to the United States Geological Survey.

China’s yuan also suffered great losses on Thursday, with its largest drop in over five months.

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