Asian stocks slide on Tuesday as chip sell-off deepens and Kospi drops more than 3%, while oil steadies after Monday’s plunge
South Korea's Kospi led Asia lower on Tuesday, falling more than 3% as a three-day rout in US chipmakers reached 12% and the Nasdaq 100 entered a technical correction, even as Indian markets pointed higher. Figures checked on Tuesday morning, 3 November 2026 (Pakistan time).
Asian stocks opened lower on Tuesday, 3 November, as a deepening sell-off in US chipmakers overshadowed a sharp fall in oil prices on hopes of diplomatic progress over Iran. The MSCI Asia Pacific gauge slipped about 0.4% to 0.5% in early trade, with South Korea’s Kospi dragging the region lower, Taiwan’s Taiex losing 1.21%, and Japanese markets closed for the Culture Day holiday, while Hang Seng futures pointed to a higher open in Hong Kong.
The Kospi was the clear laggard. It opened 2.46% lower at 5,715.19, fell below the 5,700 level in early trading, and stood at 5,682.59 around 9:30am local time, down 3.01% from Monday’s close of 5,859.08, wiping out much of the previous session’s 2.24% gain. Samsung Electronics fell 4.04% to 219,750 won and SK hynix, a major supplier of high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems, dropped 4.62% to 1,404,000 won, as foreign investors sold a net 388.1 billion won of shares and institutions sold 308.2 billion won, while retail investors bought a net 670.4 billion won.
The trigger came overnight on Wall Street, where technology shares set a bleak tone. A gauge of US chipmakers extended its three-day rout to 12%, and the Nasdaq 100 sank 10% from its peak, putting it in a technical correction. On Monday itself the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 1.07% to 25,164.32 and the S&P 500 had slipped 0.51% to 7,541.40, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.41% to 51,983.98, supported by broader gains as oil fell — a mixed Monday close already reported on this site, which Tuesday’s Asian session has now carried further into technology shares.
Behind the selling is a growing doubt about whether the enormous spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure will generate sustainable profits. Oracle fell 8.8% after announcing plans to raise $20 billion through stock and bond sales to finance its AI expansion, reviving concerns about the cost of the technology boom. US semiconductor shares suffered steep losses in the same session, with Intel dropping 8.83%, Advanced Micro Devices losing 7.52% and Micron Technology falling 5.80%, and those declines fed directly into Samsung and SK hynix, whose fortunes are tied to the same chip cycle.
Oil offered the main relief, but only partly. Brent crude had slumped 7.6% on Monday to close at $104.77 a barrel, its biggest drop in three months, on optimism over US-Iran talks. Figures checked on Tuesday morning, 3 November 2026 (Pakistan time), showed Brent edging back up to $105.25 a barrel in early Asian trade, up 48 cents or 0.5%, with US West Texas Intermediate crude up 47 cents or 0.5% at $96.93, after reports of a US strike on Iran’s Qeshm Island reintroduced some risk premium — a separate story reported on this site today.
Attention in Asia is also turning to Chinese equities after a difficult month. The CSI 300 benchmark fell 8.5% in October, its worst month in more than a decade, and China’s central bank has said it will encourage financial institutions to make greater use of stock-support tools and optimise their terms, including a 100-billion-yuan swap operation on Tuesday, as authorities seek to bolster market stability. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index rose 2.3% in US trading after the latest stimulus announcements, but analysts quoted in market coverage cautioned that the measures should help stabilise the market rather than trigger a durable rally.
India, by contrast, pointed in the opposite direction on Tuesday morning. GIFT Nifty traded higher by roughly 125 to 154 points, around 23,531 to 23,551, signalling a positive start for the Sensex and Nifty 50 after Monday’s rally, when the Nifty closed above 23,400 led by Reliance Industries. Analysts put immediate support for the Nifty at 23,200 and resistance at 23,500 and 23,700, after foreign portfolio investors bought a net Rs 3,115 crore on Monday while domestic institutional investors sold a net Rs 392 crore.
The backdrop to all of this is Tuesday’s US midterm elections, with Americans voting for all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships. In a sign some investors are looking to buy on dips, US stock futures gained in early Asian trade, with S&P 500 futures up about 0.2%, but the dominant mood in Asia on Tuesday morning was caution ahead of results that will decide control of Congress and could shape spending, regulation and trade policy in the months ahead.
What happens next will depend on several moving parts, and no single outcome is certain. A clear midterm result could calm markets and encourage dip-buying in chip shares, a contested or drawn-out count could extend the caution, Chinese stimulus and the central bank’s stock-support operation could steady mainland equities without lifting the wider region, and any escalation or breakthrough in the US-Iran talks could move oil sharply in either direction, feeding back into inflation expectations and interest-rate bets. For now, Tuesday’s Asian session shows a market split: technology and Korea under pressure, oil off its lows, and India looking for a higher open.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
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