分类： business

A widespread sell-off across the technology sector dragged Asian stock markets into steep negative territory on Friday, as investors grew increasingly wary that the multi-month rally in tech shares had outpaced realistic fundamentals.

The downturn rippled across the region, starting with severe declines in South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index. An 8% intraday drop triggered the market’s automatic circuit breaker mechanism, designed to stem panic-driven trading, halting all transactions for 20 minutes. By the closing bell, the index had settled 5.8% down. This marked the third time this week alone the circuit breaker has been activated, and the fifth such event in 2026, highlighting the extreme volatility that has gripped South Korean equity markets in recent months.

Friday’s sell-off followed sharp declines in major U.S. tech stocks the previous session. Apple saw its share price plummet 6% on Thursday — its largest single-day drop in over 12 months — after the company announced it would hike prices for its iPad and MacBook product lines to offset skyrocketing computer chip manufacturing costs. Microsoft also recorded losses after it revealed price increases for its Xbox gaming consoles, blaming elevated component costs. These moves stoked broader market fears that rising input costs will dampen consumer demand for tech devices, which could in turn cool demand for semiconductors, undoing much of the recent growth the chip sector has enjoyed amid the AI boom.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was not spared from the downturn, closing 4% lower, led by a 12.5% plunge in shares of SoftBank, the Japanese investment giant that has positioned itself as a leading backer of AI startups and infrastructure. Major regional benchmarks in Taiwan and mainland China also posted double-digit percentage declines for the session, deepening the regional market rout.

Market analysts point to two core drivers of the correction: escalating input costs across the tech sector and growing skepticism over lofty valuations for AI-focused companies. David Makaryan, senior partner at global investment firm Alpha Pacific Group, noted that many traders are moving to lock in profits after months of steady gains, while the broader market is reassessing how much growth AI investment will actually deliver. “The long term investment case for AI remains compelling, but investors are becoming far more selective about which companies can justify the valuations the market has assigned to them,” Makaryan explained.

Concerns are also growing over the hundreds of billions of dollars that large tech firms have earmarked for AI infrastructure buildout this year. Raymond Woo, an analyst with Kyoto University Innovation Capital, pointed out that the steep costs of commercializing new AI tools are already being passed downstream to consumers. This dynamic “naturally raises questions” about whether consumer demand will scale fast enough to match the massive current investment in AI, and whether current tech stock valuations are rooted in realistic growth projections, Woo said.

BANGKOK – A broad sell-off swept across Asian equity markets on Friday, as traders moved aggressively to lock in profits following weeks of explosive gains in artificial intelligence-linked stocks that had pushed several major regional indexes to all-time records. The sharpest declines were concentrated in Japan and South Korea, where AI and semiconductor-linked holdings had led weeks of rapid upward momentum.

U.S. equity futures also retreated to start the trading day, alongside a notable drop in global crude oil prices. By the closing bell in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 had erased 4.5% of its value to settle at 69,127.10, while South Korea’s Kospi plummeted 6.8% to 8,323.52. Both indexes recovered a small portion of their early session losses by the end of trading, softening the day’s overall pullback slightly.

Other major regional indexes also posted declines: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.7% to close at 22,684.76, mainland China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 1.4% to 4,062.28, and Taiwan’s Taiex retreated 3.6%. Australia bucked the downward trend, with the S&P/ASX 200 notching a modest 0.2% gain to end at 8,765.90.

Market analysts noted that the extreme volatility seen on Friday is a predictable outcome of the massive capital inflows that have flooded into AI-related investments, from data center infrastructure to semiconductor manufacturing, in recent months. Just one day earlier, Japanese and South Korean stocks hit record closing highs, fueled by surprisingly strong quarterly earnings from top U.S. chip manufacturers Qualcomm and Micron Technology.

In South Korea, the market’s steep pullback was led by the country’s two largest tech and chip players, both of which are key partners to U.S. AI chip giant Nvidia: Samsung Electronics shed 7% on Friday, while SK Hynix fell 6.6%. The drop comes just days after Samsung’s labor union reached a last-minute wage deal with management that avoided a planned strike. In Japan, Tokyo-based SoftBank Group, a major technology investor with large AI holdings, dropped 13.4%, and chip testing equipment manufacturer Advantest sank 10.8%.

The volatility in AI stocks is not limited to Asian markets. On Thursday, U.S. equities ended the session mixed, caught in the same ongoing rollercoaster for AI-linked holdings. Apple shares slid 6.1% after the company announced price hikes for multiple core products, while the S&P 500 closed virtually unchanged, dipping less than 0.1% after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1% (71 points), while the Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted toward technology stocks, fell 0.5%.

Micron Technology was a standout gainer on Thursday, jumping 15.7% after reporting quarterly profit and revenue that far outpaced analyst expectations, alongside a stronger-than-forecast growth outlook for the current quarter. The results helped ease some concerns that the stock had become overvalued after surging 267% year-to-date through Thursday’s open. Even so, Stephen Innes, a market analyst at SPI Asset Management, warned that AI and semiconductor stocks remain extremely sensitive to shifting investor sentiment. “A strong Micron print can produce a powerful upside chase one day; a new concern around memory costs, capex, or the durability of AI demand can reverse it violently the next,” Innes wrote in a client note Friday.

Broadly, AI stocks have faced intermittent selling pressure in recent weeks, as investors grow increasingly nervous that the explosive stock price rallies seen over the past year are not supported by corresponding growth in corporate profits. Beyond Micron, Qualcomm raised its long-term growth forecast late Wednesday, noting that the accelerating expansion of the AI sector is driving higher demand for its products. Elsewhere in U.S. trading, SpaceX shares dipped 1% to close below $153, marking the stock’s lowest finish since its high-profile Nasdaq debut earlier this month.

Thomas Mathews, a markets analyst at Capital Economics, observed that while the AI boom has driven extreme swings in technology sectors, other parts of the global stock market have remained relatively stable. “Even if the AI boom turned into a bust the ‘non-tech’ parts of the stock market could conceivably shrug it off for a while, as they have this week,” Mathews noted in a research report.

Outside of equities, global commodity and currency markets showed muted movement on Friday. A latest U.S. inflation report came in largely in line with economist expectations, showing annual consumer price inflation climbing to 4.1% in May, up from 3.8% in April. Economists widely expect inflation to ease in coming months, supported by a recent decline in global crude oil prices. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell 1.8% to $74.13 per barrel on Friday, down sharply from the highs above $100 seen after geopolitical tensions related to the Iran conflict disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil chokepoint. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2% to $70.46 per barrel.

In foreign exchange trading, the U.S. dollar edged slightly lower against the Japanese yen, falling to 161.64 yen from 161.80 yen. The euro also posted a tiny gain against the dollar, rising to $1.1376 from $1.1371.

BANGKOK – Asian equity markets rallied broadly on Thursday, with technology and semiconductor stocks leading double-digit gains across Japan and South Korea. The surge came on the heels of strong earnings reports and upward guidance revisions from two major U.S. semiconductor industry leaders, Qualcomm and Micron Technology, that reignited investor confidence in the global tech sector.

Following the closing bell on Wall Street Wednesday, Qualcomm saw its share price jump 12% in after-hours trading after the firm announced a dramatic upward revision to its 2024 full-year revenue forecast, lifting the projection from an initial $22 billion to $40 billion. The company also unveiled its newest data center central processing unit, the Dragonfly C1000, which has already secured a major customer in Meta Platforms. Not to be outdone, memory chip manufacturer Micron Technology delivered its own positive update: the firm beat Wall Street analysts’ earnings and revenue estimates and raised its forward guidance, pushing its after-hours share price up nearly 16% by the end of extended trading.

These bullish U.S. chip sector results spilled over into Asian trading hours, driving sharp gains across the region’s key tech-heavy benchmark indexes. Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 4.1% to close at 71,995.59, with semiconductor industry stocks leading the upward climb. Tokyo Electron, a leading global chip manufacturing equipment provider, gained 7.1% on the day, while Advantest, a prominent chip testing equipment manufacturer, saw its shares soar 13.4%. Across the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index notched a new all-time closing high, jumping 5.9% to 8,968.22. Two of the country’s largest tech and chip manufacturers led gains: Samsung Electronics added 5.4% to its share price, and memory chip giant SK Hynix climbed 11.6%.

Gains were far more muted across other major Asian markets, with only small incremental increases recorded in most regional exchanges. Taiwan’s Taiex index climbed 0.8%, India’s Sensex gained 0.6%, and China’s Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.4% to 4,125.76. Two regional bucked the upward trend: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 1.4% to close at 23,090.27, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.5% to finish at 8,768.20.

The rally in Asian tech stocks contrasted with a mixed close for U.S. markets on Wednesday, where broader tech sector pressure capped gains for most equities. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to close at 7,358.22, dragged down by losses across several large-cap tech names. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has a far smaller weighting toward technology stocks than other major U.S. benchmarks, climbed 10.4 points to 51,848.90, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4% to 25,476.64. Microsoft lost 2.3% of its value, Oracle slumped 4.6%, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, slipped 0.2% ahead of its upcoming addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which will take place on Monday, replacing Verizon. Alphabet will become the fifth member of the so-called “Magnificent 7” group of large U.S. tech stocks to join the Dow, joining Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Analysts have warned in recent weeks that valuations for large-cap U.S. tech stocks, which have driven the market’s record-setting rally throughout 2024, may have become stretched.

Energy markets saw significant downward movement on Wednesday as negotiations continue between the U.S. and Iran toward a potential end to their ongoing conflict, pushing global oil prices back toward levels last seen before the outbreak of the war. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil pricing, fell 3.8% to $73.87 per barrel on Wednesday, and dropped an additional 1.3% to $72.90 in early Asian trading Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 3.9% to $70.34 per barrel on Wednesday, and lost a further 1.4% to $69.37 early Thursday. Oil prices are now edging closer to the roughly $70 per barrel trading range recorded in late February, before the Iran war began. The drop in crude pulled energy stocks lower on Wall Street, with Exxon Mobil falling 2% and Chevron losing 2.6%.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, homebuilding stocks were among the top performers Wednesday after U.S. lawmakers passed industry-friendly legislation. KB Home saw its share price surge 16.7%, while D.R. Horton jumped 6.7%.

Market focus now turns to the U.S. inflation update due later Thursday, when the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index – the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation. Economists polled by forecasters expect the report to show headline PCE inflation rose 4.1% year-over-year in May, which would mark the highest reading recorded in three years. Fed policymakers have remained concerned about persistent inflation, which has been pushed higher by tariffs that raised input costs for a wide range of goods. Inflationary pressures worsened after the outbreak of the Iran war, which pushed global energy and shipping costs higher. Analysts expect those inflationary impacts to linger even as crude oil and gasoline prices decline in recent trading.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar edged lower against the Japanese yen early Thursday, falling to 161.75 yen from 161.75 yen in the previous session. The euro ticked slightly higher against the greenback, rising to $1.1368 from $1.1358.

HONG KONG – Global financial markets entered a new phase of volatility on Wednesday, as a broad sell-off of high-flying artificial intelligence-linked technology stocks that started on Wall Street spilled across Asian trading floors, leaving regional benchmarks mixed. The pullback comes after months of steep gains for tech and semiconductor shares in Japan and South Korea, driven by feverish investor enthusiasm around the global AI boom, making the sharp two-day decline a key test of market sentiment.

U.S. stock futures also pointed to conflicting direction early Wednesday, as investors continued digesting the previous session’s losses on Wall Street. On Tuesday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.4%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slid 2.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down a modest 0.1%. Leading the downward move were major U.S. tech and semiconductor names: memory chip giant Micron Technology plummeted 13.2%, while AI leader Nvidia shed more than 4.1% of its value.

In South Korea, one of the markets most exposed to the AI chip supply chain, the benchmark Kospi index managed a slight 0.5% rebound to 8,241.23 on Wednesday, clawing back a small fraction of the 10% nosedive it took a day earlier. The recovery was uneven across the country’s top tech stocks: Samsung Electronics gained 3.7% a day after it plunged 12.3%, while another top blue chip, SK Hynix, continued to fall, dropping 3.6%.

Japan’s Nikkei 225, which has surged to record highs this year fueled by AI-related gains, extended its losses for a second session, dropping 1.1% to 68,991.77, after falling 3.6% on Tuesday. Across other tech-heavy Asian benchmarks, Taiwan’s Taiex fell 2.5%, echoing the global pullback for AI-linked shares. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up a marginal 0.1% to 23,364.72, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.3% to 4,096.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 posted a small 0.1% gain to close at 8,797.00.

Analysts note the sharp swings highlight how quickly volatility has risen for the tech stocks that have led global market gains this year. “This is an illustration of rising volatility” in AI-exposed equities, explained James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics. Reilly noted the volatility is particularly pronounced in South Korea, where domestic retail investors have taken on a growing share of trading activity in recent months. The pullback has sparked ongoing debate among market participants over whether the decline is merely a broad profit-taking exercise after months of gains, or a sign of shifting investor sentiment toward overvalued tech names.

Beyond equities, global commodity markets also moved lower on Wednesday, with oil prices falling as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East eased slightly. More commercial vessels have resumed transits through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil supplies, and diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Iran aimed at a permanent de-escalation of conflict have made progress, according to market observers.

“Price movements suggest the market expects a fairly rapid recovery in Persian Gulf oil supplies,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a client note. They added that while vessel traffic through the strait has increased in recent days, volumes remain far below pre-conflict levels. International benchmark Brent crude fell 0.7% to $76.30 per barrel on Wednesday, and U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude also dropped 0.7% to $72.70 per barrel. While prices have fallen below the $80 per barrel mark in recent trading, they remain elevated compared to the roughly $70 per barrel seen in late February before the outbreak of the latest regional conflict.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar held steady against the Japanese yen, holding at 161.55 yen. The euro weakened slightly, trading at $1.1364, down from $1.1382 in previous trading.

Looking ahead, U.S. investors are turning their focus to upcoming inflation data due Thursday, which will shape the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate moves. The May personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, is the key upcoming data point. Most economists currently predict the central bank will hold interest rates steady through the remainder of 2024, and is unlikely to implement additional rate hikes. Bond yields have remained elevated in recent sessions, as persistent inflation concerns have been amplified by global energy market shocks.