Global stocks failed to hold onto early gains following Tuesday’s tech-led rout, as a fresh bout of selling weighed on the sector ahead of highly anticipated results from memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc. The MSCI All Country World Index fell 0.1%, while Asia’s equity benchmark dropped 0.4% following an early advance of nearly 1%. Shares of bellwether Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which accounts for more than 10% of the Asian gauge, lost over 3% after having largely weathered Tuesday’s broader rout. South Korea’s Kospi Index pared early gains, with Samsung Electronics Co.’s stock supported by a report that the firm may announce a buyback. US equity futures edged higher.
Elsewhere in markets, a gauge of the dollar climbed to a seven-month high as weakness in stocks supported haven demand. Brent crude slipped to approach $76 a barrel as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz became more visible following an interim peace agreement between the US and Iran. The volatile equities backdrop has sharpened the focus on Micron’s results, which may provide crucial cues on whether demand for AI infrastructure remains strong enough to sustain this year’s rally. The stock dropped 13% on Tuesday but is still up more than 250% in 2026. Veteran strategist Louis Navellier said the report will be the grand finale to a “stunning” earnings season. Shares of Cerebras Systems Inc. lost about 11% in late US trading after the newly public chipmaker gave an annual sales forecast that disappointed investors looking for the company to take a bigger slice of the AI data center market. The moves point to renewed concerns that the AI-driven rally may have run too far, too fast. The Asian benchmark slumped 3.6% on Tuesday, the most since early March, while the Kospi tumbled 10%. The selloff spread to US markets, with the Nasdaq 100 plunging 3.3% and the S&P 500 losing 1.4%. A closely watched semiconductor gauge — which had more than doubled from its war-driven lows — lost about 8%. Worries over whether the massive spending commitments by technology firms will generate sufficient returns, coupled with elevated valuations and crowded positioning, have triggered sharp pullbacks in AI-linked stocks from time to time. Even so, equity markets look set to close out the first half of 2026 with some blockbuster gains. Up almost 13% since the end of March, the MSCI All Country World Index is on course for its best quarter since the period ended Dec. 31, 2020. In other AI-related developments, Chinese model maker Zhipu is considering a share sale to raise several billion US dollars in Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said, after soaring 2,000% since its listing in January. Separately, ByteDance Ltd., the developer of TikTok, is in preliminary talks with banks for a borrowing of about $20 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the firm’s largest offshore loan yet at a time when it’s boosting investments in AI. For the Kospi, Tuesday’s rout was one of its steepest in history as a turnaround in investor sentiment toward the chips sector sparked a rapid unwind of leveraged positions in the world’s best-performing equity market. Meanwhile, Indonesian stocks were down about 1.6% as MSCI Inc. again delayed its review of the nation’s equity market, saying it needs more time to assess whether recently announced transparency reforms are working. MSCI had in January warned of a possible downgrade to frontier status due to investability concerns. The New York-based index provider also retained South Korea in its emerging-markets basket. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% to head for a third straight day of gains. Gold fell for a second session, under pressure from a stronger greenback and the tech-led selloff in equities that prompted investors to cut bullion holdings and cover losses elsewhere. In fixed income, Treasuries advanced for a second day as the equity selloff and falling oil prices were seen as easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to contain inflation. An auction of two-year Treasury notes drew strong demand on Tuesday, about a week after Kevin Warsh’s first press conference as Fed chair spurred a sharp increase in yields as traders priced in more tightening in response to rising inflation. Focus now turns to Thursday’s personal spending data for more cues. Warsh’s commitment to lowering inflation bolsters the Fed’s credibility, supporting long-dated Treasury yields and a lower term-premium, as per Citadel Securities. Trading in the $31 trillion US Treasury market since last week’s Fed meeting has been defined by relatively more stable long-dated yields versus the policy sensitive two-year sector, and “a hyper-credible Fed should be good for long end rates,” according to Nohshad Shah, the firm’s head of EMEA fixed-income sales.
Nikkei -0.35% Hang Seng +0.58%% CSI +0.40% Kospi +3.05% Shanghai +0.06% Shenzen +0.63%
Eur$ 1.1366 CNH 6.8058 CNY 6.8017 JPY 161.60 GBP 1.3194 CHF 0.8108 RUB 74.5306 TRY 46.4963 WTI$ 72.70 -0.70% Gold 4,077 -1.39% BTC 62,988 +0.95% ETH 1,676 +0.82%
S&P +0.19% Nasdaq +0.56% EuroStoxx -0.11% FTSE -0.34% Dax -0.15% SMI +0.06%
Macro :
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- MSCI May Reclassify Indonesia If Insufficient Progress by Nov.
- MSCI May Reclassify Indonesia If Insufficient Progress by Nov.
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- Venezuela to reveal $240bn debt pile in world’s largest restructuring
- Trump Defends Unfreezing Iran Funds as Senate Rebukes Him on War
- BNP Sees Taiwan Dollar Losing Momentum on Seasonality, Flows
Keep an eye on :
Keep an eye on :
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- CAG US : *CONAGRA BRANDS TO BE REMOVED FROM S&P 500
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- GTT FP : GTT Gets Samsung Heavy Order for Tanks for Three LNG Carriers
- LDO IM : Canada in Talks to Buy ~30 Italian M-346 Trainer Jets: Globe
- NG/ LN : Great Britain Grid Operator Warns of Tight Supplies on Wednesday
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- TEN IM : Tenaris to Invest Over $90m In Pennsylvania Operations
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- VZ US : Alphabet to Replace Verizon in Dow Jones Industrial Average
- VTU LN : Vertu Motors Sees Earnings Ahead of Market Expectations
- WAWI NO : Wallenius Wilhelmsen Gets $420m Contract Extension