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By Megan Cheah and Kimberley Kao The selloff in global stocks deepened in Asia on Thursday, after Wall Street logged its worst day since July, as a hot U.S. inflation report collided with jitters about debt related to artificial intelligence. The U.S. chip stock selloff gathered steam overnight as investors turn cautious about some AI companies amid concerns over everything from the threat of Chinese competition to debt. Both the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 logged their biggest one-day declines since July.
"What stands out today is that this has moved beyond a simple tech correction into a broader risk-off event," Saxo Markets' Charu Chanana said in an email. "We are seeing equities sell off sharply while government bonds rally and the yen and Swiss franc strengthen--essentially a return of the traditional hedges that had stopped working consistently in recent months," the chief investment strategist added. The Nikkei Stock Average in Japan dropped 5.0%, on track for its biggest daily percentage loss since March.
South Korea's Kospi--which is heavily skewed toward chip stocks--tumbled 9.1% as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each plunged over 10%. China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 1.5% lower, while its tech gauge dropped 3.0%.
The worst of the selling overnight was concentrated in names that have borrowed heavily to finance data center build-outs and have signaled plans to keep doing so, making lenders uneasy. Higher-than-expected U.S. inflation numbers Wednesday raised expectations for higher interest rates, which would mean higher borrowing costs. That could increase the credit risks for AI-related companies and disrupt their heavy infrastructure investments.
Capital spending by the top five hyperscalers is set to outpace their operating cash flow in 2026, marking a shift that leaves AI-related investments increasingly dependent on external financing, said Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute. "This would mean that AI-related investments are becoming increasingly susceptible to financial market conditions," he said. "While it remains too early to judge whether the AI-driven stock rally has entered a full-blown correction phase, 10-year government bond yields around 3% in Japan and 5% in the U.S. are high relative to economic fundamentals, and this could be acting as a headwind for the AI boom," he said.
Some investors moved into the safe haven of government bonds, sending the ten-year Japanese government bond yield down 7.2 basis points to 2.925%, Factset data showed. The Australian 10-year bond's yield shed 10.3 basis points to 5.211%, while New Zealand's 10-year yield fell 4.7 basis points to 4.948%. Regional currencies were mixed.
"AI-led equity weakness could further cap [U.S. dollar] upside by challenging the capital flows into U.S. assets and wealth effects supporting resilient U.S. growth," said OCBC Group Research strategists Sim Moh Siong and Christopher Wong in a note. The U.S. dollar declined 0.2% to 94.95 rupees, but was 0.7% higher at 1,347.44 won, according to LSEG data. The Australian dollar was 0.2% lower at US$0.6955.
Oil futures were lower during Asian trade. Higher oil flows out of the Middle East in September likely eased pressures on inventory depletion, but risks of future disruption remains as the war persists without a resolution, said Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Madison Cartwright. Front-month West Texas Intermediate futures declined 1.2% to $93.95 a barrel, while front-month Brent was down 1.7% at $104.22 a barrel, ICE data showed. -- Ronnie Harui and Megumi Fujikawa contributed to this article Write to Megan Cheah at megan.cheah@wsj.com and Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires October 15, 2026 02:22 ET (06:22 GMT) Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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