A slump in technology stocks snowballed into Asia as mounting anxiety over frothy valuations and massive artificial intelligence spending drove investors to trim exposure. MSCI’s gauge of Asian tech shares fell on Thursday for a fifth time in six sessions with Samsung Electronics Co. and SoftBank Group Corp. among the losers. South Korea’s Kospi Index — a poster child for AI investments — led the losses, dropping 3.2%. Consumer and health-care stocks advanced. MSCI’s gauge of broader Asian stocks dropped 1.3%. After the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumped during the US session, sentiment was further hit as Alphabet Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and Arm Holdings Plc all fell in extended trading following tepid earnings. Futures contracts for the US gauges gave up initial gains to trade flat. European shares were also set for a weaker open ahead of central bank rate decisions.
Outside of tech, attention was squarely on precious metals. Silver plummeted as much as 17% and gold dropped as much as 3.5% as the commodities struggled to find a price floor following a historic market rout. While AI-driven selloffs have surfaced in the past, nothing rivals the rout rippling through stock and credit markets this week. With the US economy proving resilient, investors are rotating into other sectors as anxiety mounts over tech valuations, soaring capital expenditures, and the risk that AI will cannibalize established software business models. Rotation out of tech was the main theme during the US session and software firms saw another wave of selling, but moves were bigger in chipmakers. A Bloomberg gauge of the so-called Magnificent Seven companies fell 1.8%. The Nasdaq 100 had its worst two-day rout since October, breaching its 100-day moving average, a level seen by some analysts as a harbinger for more losses. Down about 20% from an Oct. 2 high, the Hang Seng Tech Index in Hong Kong is poised to close in a bear market. The gauge has fallen for six straight sessions, as concerns over Chinese tax and earnings weigh on sentiment already shaken by a global AI selloff. In the span of two days, hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the value of stocks, bonds and loans of companies across Silicon Valley. Software stocks were at the epicenter, plunging so much that the value of those tracked in an iShares ETF has now dropped almost $1 trillion over the past seven days. Gold and silver emerged as the Asian session’s other dominant narrative. Precious metals soared last month in a rally underpinned by speculative momentum, geopolitical upheaval and concerns about the Federal Reserve’s independence. The surge came to a sudden halt at the end of last week, with silver seeing its biggest ever daily drop on Friday and gold plunging the most since 2013. Copper also extended its losses as investors focused on rising inventories. In other corners of the market, Bitcoin extended its losses to trade below $71,000, while the yen fluctuated ahead of the elections in Japan set for the weekend. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index extended its gains. The pound and euro were steady ahead of interest rate decisions due later Thursday. The European Central Bank and Bank of England are expected to leave rates unchanged. Elsewhere, US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China discussed trade and geopolitical flashpoints, including Taiwan, during a Wednesday call ahead of a planned face-to-face meeting later this year. In commodities, oil fell for the first time in three days after Iran confirmed it would hold negotiations with the US, easing the immediate risk of military strikes against the OPEC producer. US After Hours GOOG -1.7% lower on earnings; AMSC +19.4%, FORM +18.3%, SITM +13.8% higher on earnings; CIEN +3.9% following news it will join S&P 500; DGII -16.4%, ARM -9.4%, QCOM -9.3% lower on earnings.
Nikkei -0.92% Hang Seng -0.77% CSI -0.46% Shanghai -0.55% Shenzen -1.12%
Eur$ 1.1788 CNH 6.9418 CNY 6.9434 JPY 156.92 GBP 1.3614 CHF 0.7785 RUB 76.5566 TRY 43.5356 WTI$ 63.74 -2.15% Gold 4,910 -1.11% BTC 70,640 -2.75% ETH 2,091 -1.62%
S&P +0.07% Nasdaq +0.24% EuroStoxx -0.07% FTSE -0.19% Dax -0.08% SMI -0.16%
Macro :
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Keep an eye on :
Keep an eye on :
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- BBVA SM : BBVA 4Q Net Income Meets Estimates
- BNP FP : BNP Paribas 4Q Net Income Beats Estimates
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- BT/A LN : BT 3Q Adjusted Ebitda Meets Estimates
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- CLN SW : Clariant to Get Cash Proceeds of ~CHF230m Pre-Tax in Stahl Deal
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- DNO NO : DNO 4Q Revenue Misses Estimates
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- LLOY LN : Lloyd’s insurers must be ‘risk-on’, says chief
- LOG SM : Logista 1Q Revenue EU3.40B
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