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Nikkei 225, Kospi, Nifty 50, China retail sales
Tourists visit the Nanjing Road Scenic Area in Shanghai, China, on October 20, 2025.
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Asia-Pacific markets slid Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as technology stocks continued to come under pressure and Fed rate-cut doubts swirled.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 1.85%, while the Topix slid 1.03%. Tech stocks led declines on the index, with tech conglomerate Rakuten Group tumbling 6.57%, semiconductor testing equipment maker Advantest falling 5.27%, and Lasertec retreating 3.97%.
Japanese giant SoftBank plunged as much as 8% in early trading, marking its third consecutive day of decline after it said Tuesday it had sold its entire stake in Nvidia.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.29% and the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.42% lower. Index heavyweight Samsung Electronics slipped more than 3%, while SK Hynix, which supplies memory chips to Nvidia, fell 5%.
The South Korean won strengthened 0.72% to 1,460.0 against the dollar, after the finance minister said Friday that the country’s FX authorities will consult major market players including the national pension fund and key exporters on ways to stabilize the won, according to Reuters.
According to the report, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol told senior economic officials that steps were needed to tackle the structural mismatch in U.S. dollar supply and demand, amid growing concerns over currency market volatility.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.58%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.52%, while mainland’s CSI 300 dipped 0.64% at the open.
China will release data on retail sales, industrial output, and fixed-asset investment for October today. Fixed-asset investment, which includes real estate, fell unexpectedly by 0.5% in September.
Overnight in the U.S., all three major averages closed lower as investors continued to sell shares of technology companies, especially those in the artificial intelligence trade, amid worries about their valuations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 797.60 points, or 1.65%, to settle at 47,457.22, well off the record highs set in the previous session. The S&P 500 shed 1.66% to finish at 6,737.49.
The broad-based index saw notable declines in the information technology and communication services sectors, led by Disney, which fell nearly 8% on mixed results for its fiscal fourth quarter. The Nasdaq Composite pulled back 2.29% to close at 22,870.36. All three major averages, as well as the small-cap Russell 2000 index, suffered their worst day since Oct. 10.
Recent remarks from Fed chair Jerome Powell’s colleagues point to plenty of apprehension over whether the central bank should deliver its third consecutive easing of policy when it meets Dec. 9-10.
“Given my baseline outlook, it will likely be appropriate to keep policy rates at the current level for some time to balance the inflation and employment risks in this highly uncertain environment,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins recently said.
As a result, markets have recalibrated their expectations. Whereas traders as recently as a few days ago were pricing in at least a 2-to-1 probability of a quarter percentage point cut, that’s now flipped to a coin toss, according to futures markets readings tabulated by the CME Group in its FedWatch tool.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
