Kamal Ghorui
Asian markets fell sharply on Friday as an extended sell-off in US technology stocks continued to weigh on investor sentiment. The losses came amid growing concern over heavy spending on artificial intelligence and uncertainty about when those investments will deliver returns. In Hong Kong, HSI was down 304 points or 1.13% as on 10:20 am IST. Kospi also continued to fall for the second day, slipping 2% to 5,057. Meanwhile, Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.1% and 0.6%, respectively. Japan’s Nikkei also inched higher, adding 175 points or 0.33%. Losses were not confined to equities. The downturn rippled across asset classes, battering silver once again and pushing bitcoin to levels that erased all gains made since US President Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States. Adding to investor anxiety was an announcement from AI startup Anthropic, known for creating the Claude chatbot. The company revealed a new tool capable of replacing multiple software functions, including applications used in legal services and data marketing. US markets closed lower for a third consecutive session on Thursday. All three major Wall Street indexes recorded significant losses, with the Nasdaq suffering the steepest decline. The index has now logged its worst three-day performance since the tariff-driven market turmoil in April during Trump’s presidency. Economic data from the US added further pressure. Monthly job openings fell to their lowest level since 2020, while companies announced the highest number of job cuts for January since the global financial crisis in 2009, intensifying worries about the broader US economy. Precious metals remained under heavy selling pressure. Silver plunged by around 18 percent at one stage before recovering to trade near $70 an ounce, its lowest level since December. The metal had been trading above $121 just a week earlier. Gold also fell, shedding about two percent to sit just under $4,800, compared with its peak of $5,595 last Thursday. The recent slump in metals followed a surge in the US dollar last weekend after Trump appointed a relatively hawkish figure to lead the Federal Reserve, alongside easing geopolitical tensions. Cryptocurrencies were also caught in the sell-off. Bitcoin fell to its weakest level since October and narrowly avoided slipping below $60,000, wiping out gains linked to expectations of more crypto-friendly policies under Trump. The digital currency has now dropped more than 50 percent from its record high above $126,000 reached in October. In corporate news, Rio Tinto shares declined after the British-Australian miner said it would abandon merger talkswith Switzerland-based Glencore. The proposed tie-up would have created the world’s largest mining company, valued at about US$260 billion. Rio Tinto fell more than two percent in Sydney, while its London-listed shares dropped over one percent.
