SHENZHEN, CHINA – AUGUST 26: An aerial view of the Shenzhen skyline on August 26, 2020 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. (Photo by He Shaoping/VCG via Getty Images)
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets fell Friday, tracking Wall Street declines on persistent concerns over lofty valuations in artificial intelligence stocks.
Shares of major AI companies fell Thursday stateside, weighing down on the broader U.S. market. The biggest declines were from Nvidia, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.93%. Shares of AI-related stocks were they key drag: SoftBank was down over 8%, semiconductor testing equipment maker Advantest lost more than 7%, chipmaker Renesas Electronics fell 4%, and Tokyo Electron, a chip production equipment maker, declined 2.17%.
The Topix index retreated 0.99%.
South Korea’s Kospi declined 1.47% in volatile trading, while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 1.96%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.27%.
Investors in Asia are watching for China’s October trade data, due later in the day. Economists polled by Reuters expect exports to have slowed to 3% year on year, down from an 8.3% surge in September, while imports are forecast to fall to 3.2% from 7.4%.
That comes as weak domestic demand continues to weigh on the back of a prolonged housing slump, rising job insecurity, and the tapering of consumption-focused stimulus measures.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.61%, while the mainland’s CSI 300 lost 0.3%.
U.S. futures edged higher in early Asian hours after Thursday’s tech sell-off.
Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 398.70 points, or 0.84%, to close at 46,912.30. The S&P 500 traded down by 1.12%, to settle at 6,720.32, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.9% to end at 23,053.99.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.