Declines in Asia, recovery in South Korea

Stock markets in Asia had a rough day on Tuesday, and in South Korea trading was temporarily halted after the Kospi plunged more than 8 percent.

Trading on Wednesday, however, bounced back slightly. At lunchtime, the Kospi was up 0.6 percent. At the same time, technology giant Samsung rose 6.4 percent.

Other stock markets in the region continued to decline, but not as dramatically. In China, Shanghai was down 0.5 percent, Shenzhen was down 0.3 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.3 percent.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo was down 0.4 percent and the broader Topix was down 0.3 percent.