Asian Markets Fall After Wall Street Tech Selloff

Asian markets fell sharply on Friday after a technology selloff on Wall Street, with South Korea’s Kospi triggering an automatic 20-minute trading halt after dropping as much as 8.8% intraday. The index closed down 6.02%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 5.96% and Taiwan’s Taiex lost 4.51%. All three pared some of their earlier losses before the close. The losses followed Thursday’s 5.5% decline in the Nasdaq Composite, which reports estimated erased about $2 trillion in market value. The S&P 500 fell 4.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.4%. The Nasdaq’s decline was its steepest in 19 months, according to one report. Technology and semiconductor shares were among the hardest hit. In Asia, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix fell heavily, as did Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company shares. In the United States, Advanced Micro Devices and Micron each dropped more than 17%, Nvidia fell 9.3% and Broadcom lost more than 10%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined more than 12%. Investors were weighing concerns about returns on large artificial-intelligence infrastructure investments alongside uncertainty over US policy after Democrats won majorities in both...