A deepened tech sell-off drags Asian stocks lower as markets in South Korea and Japan sink
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares fell sharply Thursday with markets in South Korea and Japan sinking, as a sell-off of technology shares deepened after U.S. stocks fell on hotter-than-expected inflation data.
U.S. equity futures were mixed.
South Korea's benchmark Kospi index lost 7.9% to 5,532.74. It plummeted more than 16% over the past month and was well below the 9,000 mark that it crossed in June at its all-time high driven by optimism over the global artificial intelligence frenzy.
Samsung Electronics slid 11.4% and South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix plunged 12%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 5% to 64,340.84. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group lost 9.4%. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron dropped 7.8%, and memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings lost 13.1%.
Taiwan's Taiex, which also benefited from the AI boom, fell 3.4%. Its leading chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, dropped 2% ahead of its earnings report. TSMC reported on Thursday better-than-expected profit for the latest quarter and the company said AI demand remains “very strong.”
“The problem for heavily technology-weighted markets such as Korea and Taiwan, to a lesser extent Japan, is that any risk to perceived AI spending growth may lead to slower demand growth for chips and equipment,” said Lorraine Tan, director of equity research for Asia at Morningstar.
“The key issue is a possible mismatch between market’s growth expectations for the tech sector and what may eventuate,” she said.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 23,982.04. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 2% to 3,692.18.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.1% to 8,719.70.
The declines followed losses on Wall Street on Wednesday. The S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite slipped 1.9% as AI-related stocks fell.
Nvidia lost 3.2%, Broadcom gave up 3.1%, and Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, declined 5.7%.
The U.S. reported Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 3.7% year-on-year in September, up from 3.4% in August and worse than what economists had expected.
Stocks have also faced downward pressure from surging bond yields and a volatile bond market. Yields on longer-term U.S. Treasurys have jumped over inflation worries fueled by the global energy shock driven by the Iran war and continuously rising U.S. government debt.
But the bond sell-off appeared to have eased significantly early Thursday. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury was at 5.11% after briefly jumping to above 5.32% Wednesday. It had reached 5.35% earlier this month as it hit its highest level since 2002.
Oil prices fell as tensions and uncertainties surrounding global oil supply and the situation in the Middle East dragged on. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 1.6% to $104.34 per barrel. That's still elevated compared with the approximately $72 per barrel level before the start of the Iran war in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude was 1.2% lower at $93.98 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 157.94 Japanese yen from 158.33 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1211, up from $1.1157.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
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