Asian shares slip on Monday as AI investment worries linger after Wall Street sell-off
Asian share markets slipped on Monday as doubts about the scale and returns of artificial intelligence spending weighed on technology stocks, after a sharp Wall Street sell-off on Friday, while oil prices eased on hopes for progress in Qatar-led talks on the US-Iran confrontation.
Asian share markets slipped on Monday as worries about the sustainability of the artificial intelligence investment boom loomed over the technology sector, in the first trading session after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street. Reuters, reporting from Sydney, said Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.5 per cent, South Korea lost 0.8 per cent, and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.4 per cent, while European futures pointed slightly higher and Wall Street futures recovered modestly.
The immediate trigger was Friday’s trading in New York, where all three main indices closed lower on the week amid rising concern about how much AI-related companies are spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 572.25 points, or 1.09 per cent, to 51,770.31, the S&P 500 dropped 140.32 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 7,580.07, and the Nasdaq Composite closed 747.73 points, or 2.86 per cent, lower at 25,437.00, according to NDTV Profit’s market round-up. The Nasdaq lost almost 7 per cent in October, its worst month since the tariff-driven rout of April 2025.
Inside that sell-off, the technology names at the centre of the AI boom bore the heaviest falls. Intel shares plunged 28.58 per cent after a downward revision to its guidance, while Nvidia fell 4.22 per cent, AMD tanked 10.88 per cent, Broadcom dropped 5.48 per cent, Microsoft slipped 1.55 per cent and Alphabet, Google’s owner, fell 1.45 per cent. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index plunged 7.2 per cent on Friday, according to South Korea’s Edaily, and Amazon’s deteriorating free cash flow added to concern about negative cash flow across the sector.
That concern is the thread running through Monday’s Asian session. Reuters reported that worries about negative cash flow and the sheer scale of AI capital spending saw the cost of insuring against corporate defaults blow out last week, while gold hit a one-year low amid talk that stressed investors were selling to raise money for margin calls. Analysts at Goldman Sachs expect capital spending by the large technology companies known as hyperscalers to almost double to 800 billion dollars this year and rise further to 1.2 trillion dollars in 2027, even as they see S&P 500 earnings growth slowing from nearly 30 per cent in 2026 to 18 per cent next year.
South Korea illustrated the pressure most clearly. Edaily reported that the KOSPI was down just over 1 per cent in early trading on Monday, at 5,646.52, with institutional investors the only net buyers, at 77.8 billion won, while retail and foreign investors were net sellers. Samsung Electronics fell 3.11 per cent in that early session, while SK hynix slipped 0.78 per cent. South Korea’s market had already shed 16 per cent last month, according to Reuters, so Monday’s fall extended a bruising October rather than starting a new one.
Japan told a similar story in more muted form. NDTV Profit reported the Nikkei 225 down 0.44 per cent and the Topix down 0.60 per cent, close to Reuters’ 0.5 per cent fall for the Nikkei, with technology weakness again the drag. In India, by contrast, the preview pointed to a firmer open: Gift Nifty was trading around 23,298, a premium of nearly 200 points to the previous Nifty futures close, after the Nifty 50 rose 116 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 23,053 on Friday. India’s market was therefore expected to extend its rally even as its Asian neighbours slipped, helped by a sharp fall in crude oil prices.
Oil was one of the few markets moving in investors’ favour on Monday. Brent crude futures dipped 1.5 per cent to 111.72 dollars a barrel, while US crude eased 1.7 per cent to 102.37 dollars a barrel, after Iranian and Qatari officials held a third straight day of talks aimed at a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran. The fall came after a 13.6 per cent jump in Brent during October, so prices remain far above their levels of a month ago even after Monday’s easing. Gold, meanwhile, bounced 0.6 per cent to 3,898 dollars an ounce, having fallen 6.8 per cent last month.
Bond and currency markets were comparatively calm. Yields on 10-year US Treasuries nudged up to 4.952 per cent, well below their October peak of 5.3645 per cent, while two-year yields stood at 4.612 per cent. Futures still imply a 72 per cent chance of a quarter-point US rate rise, but only 55 basis points of total tightening are now priced in, compared with more than 70 basis points a month ago. The euro was flat at 1.1156 dollars and the dollar barely changed at 157.62 yen, with most of the action concentrated in shares.
What happens next this week will depend heavily on earnings. Apple, AMD and Palantir are all due to report, in the wake of Intel’s near-29 per cent tumble, and those results will test whether the market’s worry is about AI spending in general or about individual companies’ guidance. Economic data will add a second test: the US ISM survey of manufacturing for October is due later on Monday, while the payrolls report on Friday is expected to show a 65,000 rise in jobs, after September’s disappointing 29,000 gain, with unemployment holding at 4.2 per cent.
One possibility is that strong results from Apple and its peers reassure investors that AI spending is still producing earnings growth, allowing Asian technology shares to stabilise after their October falls. Another possibility is that further weak guidance confirms the fear that capital spending is peaking as a growth rate, in which case Monday’s slip could extend into a longer correction in the sector that has driven markets for two years. A third possibility, suggested by the bargain-hunting argument in South Korea, is a choppier path in between: sharp falls followed by buying from institutional investors who judge the sell-off excessive relative to earnings forecasts.
Figures in this post were checked at about 06:53 PKT on 2 November 2026, against Reuters, the Economic Times and NDTV Profit market reports for Monday’s Asian session and Friday’s Wall Street close; intraday index levels move during trading, so later snapshots may differ slightly.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
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