Overview
- A steep Wall Street sell-off on Thursday triggered heavy losses in Asia on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei down about 6%, South Korea’s KOSPI plunging over 8% and Taiwan’s index falling sharply.
- South Korea’s KOSPI briefly halted trading to curb volatility and major chip and AI‑linked firms posted double‑digit declines, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and TSMC.
- Investors linked the move to worries that Democratic midterm wins and recent local votes could increase regulation or restrict data‑centre construction, cutting projected demand for servers and chips.
- Volatility spiked and risk measures rose as the VIX jumped roughly 70% to about 28, oil prices slipped below $100 a barrel and U.S. stock futures were mixed ahead of the October jobs report.
- Market strategists warned the rout exposes concentration and financing risks from months of debt‑fueled AI spending and said near‑term catalysts to watch are the jobs report, corporate earnings, oil and any regulatory moves on data centres.