{
  "id": 18416534,
  "title": "Shares plunge in Tokyo, Seoul after US tech rout",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/shares-plunge-in-tokyo-seoul-after-us-tech-rout",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-06T01:08:11.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Gulf News",
    "slug": "gulf-news",
    "url": "https://gulfnews.com/business/markets/shares-plunge-in-tokyo-seoul-after-us-tech-rout-1.500737842"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Shares in Tokyo and Seoul plummeted on Friday following a decline in US stocks due to fears that the outcomes of the midterm elections may hinder or halt the investment surge in artificial intelligence data center projects. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo fell by 5.1 percent to 56,930 points in the early trading session. The Kospi index in Seoul dropped by 8.5 percent to 4,923, leading to a circuit breaker that halted trading for 20 minutes. Initially, investors had welcomed the Democratic party's significant victory over President Donald Trump's Republican Party in the elections. However, their enthusiasm quickly turned to worry, with a focus on potential repercussions of the electoral shift on crucial AI investments crucial for economic growth. The Nasdaq, a tech-focused index, experienced the most significant impact, closing down 5.5 percent, marking its worst single-day percentage loss since April 2025. This sell-off was primarily driven by semiconductor stocks like Nvidia and other chip manufacturers. In South Korea, memory chip producers such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix faced substantial losses, with declines of nearly 10 percent and over 11 percent, respectively. The tech downturn also affected chip-related companies in Japan, including Tokyo Electron, which experienced a nine percent decline, and Kioxia, which saw a 13 percent drop. The market sell-off coincided with concerns about potential stricter regulations on AI-related technologies following the Democratic Party's win in the midterm elections, which could potentially slow down the construction of data centers, a key component of the global AI infrastructure boom. This construction boom, estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, is a race among governments and technology companies worldwide to construct data centers essential for training and operating AI models.",
  "summary": "Japan's Nikkei stock index drops more than 3% after US tech rout",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Shares plunge in Tokyo and Seoul after US tech rout",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/shares-plunge-in-tokyo-and-seoul-after-us-tech-rout-18412863",
        "published": "2026-11-06T00:41:52.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Channel News Asia",
        "title": "Shares plunge in Tokyo and Seoul after US tech rout",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/shares-plunge-in-tokyo-and-seoul-after-us-tech-rout",
        "published": "2026-11-06T01:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}