Asian stocks suffered brutal sell-offs on Friday, with Taiwan and South Korea taking the biggest hits as investors turned cautious amid AI fears. The plunge came as Wall Street witnessed its worst session in 18 months, wiping out $2.5 trillion in investor wealth in one of the biggest single-day losses.Asian stock markets witnessed a broad-based sell-off on Friday, with Taiwan and South Korea bearing the brunt of the losses as the rout in technology stocks spread across the region.The sell-off saw Taiwan’s weighted index plunge 8%, while South Korea’s KOSPI dropped more than 7%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 also declined over 3,000 points or 5.95%. The losses extended to Singapore, where the Straits Times index fell 2.20% to 5,180. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was also trading lower during early trading.Technology stocks were among the worst hit, with semiconductor companies facing particularly heavy selling. South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix plunged more than 8%, while Samsung Electronics shed 7%. LG Innotek and LG Display also fell 10% and 7.7%, respectively, as investors dumped technology shares across the country.Japanese technology stocks were not spared either. Semiconductor-related companies witnessed sharp declines, with chip-testing equipment maker Advantest plunging 12.2% and Tokyo Electron sliding 7.3%. Technology investment giant SoftBank Group tumbled 11.6%.Memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings fell nearly 10%, while Renesas Electronics declined 7.5%.Taiwan’s semiconductor sector also came under intense pressure. Contract chipmaker TSMC slumped 9.6%, while electronics manufacturers Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, and Foxconn Technology dropped 9.4% and 9.1%, respectively.
Why are global markets falling?
Concerns over the future of artificial intelligence-related investments triggered the latest wave of selling in US markets. Investors are worried that the Democratic Party’s victory in both chambers of Congress, along with its wins in key gubernatorial races, could slow the expansion of data centres in the US.This has raised concerns about companies involved in AI infrastructure, particularly semiconductor manufacturers and data centre operators, as investors assess whether infrastructure development could face a slowdown.The Nasdaq Composite bore the brunt of the Wall Street sell-off, plunging 5.52% to close at 24,315.00. The index entered correction territory after falling more than 10% below the record level it had reached last month.The S&P 500 declined 4.36% to settle at 7,353.73, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, to close at 51,523.06.Thursday’s losses wiped out the previous session’s gains, when the Dow had surged more than 1,500 points, marking its best trading day since April 2025. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had also advanced more than 1% each on Wednesday.
AI stocks face heat
The technology sell-off on Wall Street was particularly severe for semiconductor companies. Broadcom shares plunged 10%, while Nvidia declined 9%. Software company Oracle also dropped almost 7%.Qualcomm shares fell 9% despite the company reporting earnings that beat estimates, as its outlook for the coming period was weaker than expected.The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) slumped more than 12%, marking its worst trading day since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020.Companies in the neocloud segment also witnessed sharp declines. CoreWeave lost almost 10%, while Nebius and Iren fell about 15% and almost 17%, respectively.The selling pressure extended beyond technology stocks, dragging down companies across other sectors. Industrial major Caterpillar declined 6%, while financial company JPMorgan shed 4%. Boeing and Nike shares also fell 2% each.Meanwhile, Brent crude oil prices were trading 1.37% higher at the time of reporting. Dow Jones futures were down 0.59%, pointing to continued weakness in market sentiment.
