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Tech Stocks Keep Falling in Asia After Overnight Wall Street Rout
Asian tech shares keep falling after the overnight Wall Street rout, with Japan's Nikkei down 6 percent.
Key points
- Japan's Nikkei index slumped 6 percent, its deepest one-day drop since April 2025.
- South Korea and Taiwan indices plunged more than 8 percent after the opening bell before cutting losses.
- Fears that the Democrats' midterm victory will bring more AI regulation and slow US data centre build-out drove the selloff.
Why it matters. Toby Walsh of the AI Institute at the University of New South Wales said he expected new regulations on data centres in many countries, including the US, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Japan's Nikkei index slumped 6 percent, its deepest one-day drop since April 2025, as selling spread across Asia. Indices in South Korea and Taiwan plunged more than 8 percent after the opening bell before cutting losses, after the Nasdaq had sunk 5.5 percent and wiped $3 trillion off S&P 500 firms. Dong Baozhen of Lingtong Shengtai told Reuters that AI share prices had been built on rosy illusions about the future.
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Tech Stocks Keep Falling in Asia After Overnight Wall Street Rout
A tech stock sell-off that began overnight in the United States has persisted through Asian trading. Market authorities in South Korea paused trading on Friday as prices plunged across the region. Global markets have been rattled by concerns that US midterm election results could lead to slower data centre expansion. Investors also worry about increased regulation of artificial intelligence. The sharp fall in share prices has spread from US tech companies to markets in Asia. Further moves will depend on how the sell-off develops in the coming sessions.