Nikkei falls 6.2% to 57,271.19 as tech selloff spreads across Asia
Key Facts
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 6.2% in morning trading on Friday, November 6, to 57,271.19, according to the Associated Press. The decline was part of a wave of pressure across other Asian markets after AI-related stocks suffered a broad selloff in the United States in the previous session. In South Korea, the Kospi fell 7.1% to 5,000.25, the agency reported. Australian shares also declined, with the S&P/ASX 200 losing about 0.7% to 9,003.40. The moves put losses in U.S. technology companies at the forefront of factors weighing on regional markets at the start of Friday’s session.
The Associated Press said concerns included the possibility that construction of AI data centers could slow as borrowing costs rise. The agency reported that stocks benefiting from the AI boom continued to trade amid concern that more expensive financing could limit the pace of construction. Investors are also concerned that AI stock prices may be in a bubble, keeping volatility elevated for several months. These concerns link technology companies’ valuations to the spending required to expand the infrastructure needed to run AI applications. The agency did not estimate the scale of any potential slowdown or give a timeline.
Wall Street indexes posted steep losses on Thursday, November 5, with the S&P 500 falling 4.4%, its worst day since April 2025, while the Nasdaq dropped 5.5%, according to the Associated Press. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,833 points, or 3.4%, in the same session. The decline in AI-related stocks was part of the selloff that preceded the drop in Asian markets. The Nasdaq, which includes a large number of technology and AI stocks, also stood 11.9% below the record high it reached in the previous month. The figures point to pressure spreading from AI stocks to broader U.S. market indexes.
Leading companies in the AI sector suffered steep losses in Thursday’s session. Nvidia fell 9.3%, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 17.3%, and CoreWeave declined 9.8%, according to the Associated Press. The moves came as stocks benefiting from the AI boom faced questions about their valuations and the cost of financing data center-related investments. Advanced Micro Devices’ decline, the largest among the percentages cited by the agency, highlights the severity of the selloff in some semiconductor and computing infrastructure stocks. The declines coincided with losses in the U.S. Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes.
In the U.S. bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.84% on Thursday, from 4.90% late on Wednesday, November 4, according to the Associated Press. The decline in the yield coincided with the drop in U.S. stocks in the same session. It provided a further indication of market moves during the selloff, alongside losses in technology stocks and the major indexes. In Japan, the Bank of Japan kept its short-term policy rate guidance at around 1.25% in its October 30 decision, by an 8-1 vote. Board member Hajime Takata dissented, proposing a hike to around 1.5%, according to the bank’s statement.
The Bank of Japan’s decision also included a change to the pace of exchange-traded fund sales, set to take effect in January 2027. The bank set the new annual pace at around 860 billion yen on a book-value basis, compared with around 330 billion yen previously. This came as part of the latest monetary policy decision, while sources did not establish that the bank’s hawkish signals caused the Nikkei’s decline on November 6. Among upcoming dates announced by the bank is its monetary policy meeting on December 17 and 18, 2026. The bank also listed a November 6 lecture by Governor Kazuo Ueda in Washington, with the event appearing in the bank’s calendar under November 7.