A pedestrian walks past an electronic quotation board displaying the Nikkei 225 stock prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on March 23, 2026. <\/p>\n
Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
South Korea stocks plunged Friday, leading losses in the region, as the slump in Wall Street tech names overnight spread into Asia<\/a>, dragging benchmark indexes lower.<\/p>\n The Kospi was last down 5.01%, with heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropping 4.34% and 7.57%, respectively. The small-cap Kosdaq index fell 4.14%. <\/p>\n In a move that could pressure South Korea’s tech sector further, the country’s labor minister urged<\/a> its biggest technology companies to distribute more of the gains from the AI-driven semiconductor boom with workers and suppliers, saying record profits risk exacerbating income inequality.<\/p>\n Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225<\/a> lost 1.53%. <\/p>\n Australia’s S&P\/ASX 200<\/a> was 0.61% lower.<\/p>\n Hong Kong’s\u00a0Hang Seng index<\/a>\u00a0was down 0.81%, while the CSI 300 was marginally lower.<\/p>\n India’s Nifty 50<\/a> was slightly higher, while the BSE Sensex was up 0.23%.<\/p>\n Overnight in the U.S., the\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0rallied to a fresh all-time high, while the\u00a0Nasdaq Composite<\/a>\u00a0underperformed as investors appeared to rotate out of chip names in favor of non-tech stocks.<\/p>\n The 30-stock Dow jumped 874.86 points, or 1.73%, to close at a record 51,561.93. The Nasdaq lost 0.09% and ended at 26,830.96, while the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0rose 0.41% to 7,584.31.<\/p>\n The rotation was sparked by a sell-off in\u00a0Broadcom<\/a>\u00a0that led investors to pare exposure to AI-linked stocks. The chipmaker slid more than 12% after its\u00a0fiscal second-quarter revenue missed<\/a> estimates. Chip names, which led the latest leg higher in the market’s rally to record levels, fell broadly. The\u00a0VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH)<\/a>\u00a0lost more than 1%.\u00a0Arm Holdings<\/a>\u00a0shed more than 4%, while\u00a0Micron Technology<\/a>\u00a0fell close to 8%.<\/p>\n Stocks also came under pressure on Middle East worries. Mixed messages have emerged recently out of negotiations to end the war, which has upset global markets and caused\u00a0oil\u00a0and gasoline prices to spike.<\/p>\n \u2014 CNBC’s Spencer Kimball<\/a>\u00a0and Lisa Kailai Han<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n