South Korea markets led declines in Asia-Pacific Thursday, tracking Wall Street losses as the tech sell-off gained momentum. Seoul’s Kospi index tumbled 3.66%, leading losses in Asia, as chip heavyweights Samsung and SK Hynix fell 5.68% and 5.44%, respectively. Other top losers included defense giant Hanwha Aerospace, which declined 5.36%. The small-cap Kosdaq was down 3.26%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.97%. Investment firm SoftBank Group Corp declined over 6.75% after chip designer Arm’s fiscal third quarter licensing sales missed estimates.
The S&P 500 fell on Wednesday as the sell-off in technology stocks intensified, with losses in Advanced Micro Devices hindering the trade. The broad market index slid 0.51% and closed at 6,882.72, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 260.31 points, or 0.53%, and settled at 49,501.30. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.51% to end at 22,904.58. Adding to the risk-off sentiment, bitcoin fell more than 3% after earlier breaking below the $73,000 level. Shares of AMD weighed on the broader market, pulling back 17% after its first-quarter forecast underwhelmed some analysts. Defending the results, CEO Lisa Su told CNBC Wednesday that the company has seen an increase in demand in recent months, saying, “AI is accelerating at a pace that I would not have imagined.”
Gold dropped more than 2% to around $4,840 per ounce on Thursday, trimming gains from a two-day recovery, pressured by renewed selling after Federal Reserve caution on rate cuts. Fed Governor Lisa Cook said she would not support additional cuts, prioritizing persistent upside inflation risks over signs of a slowing labor market. This, combined with President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, seen as more hawkish than other contenders, led markets to price at a slower pace of potential rate cuts. However, Trump said he wouldn’t have nominated Warsh if he favoured rate hikes and sees little doubt the Fed will cut rates again. Elsewhere, US–Iran tensions lingered despite plans for nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, with Washington not ruling out strikes.
WTI crude futures fell more than 1% toward $64 a barrel on Thursday, snapping a two-day advance after Tehran confirmed it would hold talks with Washington this week, easing concerns that a broader conflict could disrupt oil flows. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions will take place in Oman on Friday, while a White House official confirmed that the US and Iran still plan to engage on a potential nuclear deal. Uncertainty remains over the scope of the negotiations, with Tehran seeking to confine talks to its nuclear program, while Washington wants to broaden the agenda to include Iran’s ballistic-missile program, support for regional militant groups and human rights issues.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had a “long and thorough call” with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, naming Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s energy purchases and his upcoming visit in April among the key talking points. Beijing’s statement, however, singled out Taiwan as “the most important issue” in bilateral relations, urging the U.S. to “handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.” China maintains Taiwan is part of its territory, claims that have been rejected by the democratically governed island. Washington approved arms sales to Taiwan worth as much as $11.15 billion in December last year — one of its biggest ever — to strengthen the island’s defenses and deter any military aggression by Beijing.
Venezuela has assured Beijing that its oil pricing will not be dictated by the U.S. and that Chinese investment in the South American country remains secure, according to state media. Speaking at a briefing Tuesday, Remigio Ceballos, Venezuelan ambassador to China, dismissed reports that Washington would influence the price China pays for Venezuelan crude, saying Caracas would not abide by U.S. arrangements. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that U.S. President Donald Trump was considering exerting control over Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, including lowering prices to $50 per barrel.
The United States is developing plans with Mexico, the European Union and Japan to implement minimum prices for critical minerals, the U.S. trade representative said Wednesday. The Trump administration is exploring a partnership with Mexico on critical minerals as part of a scheduled review of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, or USMCA, by July 1. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the potential partnership would “address global market distortions that have left North American critical minerals supply chains vulnerable to disruptions.” Greer described Wednesday’s announcement with Mexico as an “action plan” to be implemented over the next 60 days. The U.S. and Mexico will explore ways to implement price floors for critical mineral imports, and will discuss how to implement those minimum prices in agreements with other nations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sparred with Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, with one calling him a “flunky” for failing to criticize investment from United Arab Emirates officials in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., probed Bessent on alleged conflicts of interest and lack of transparency related to World Liberty Financial, which was co-founded by Trump’s family members. “When a foreign-linked investor is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into a company controlled by the president’s family, and at the same time, this president is conducting foreign policy with that country ... it creates a national security concern,” Meeks said. “The OCC is an independent entity,” Bessent said, over the shouts of Meeks, without addressing the topic further. “Stop covering for the president. Stop being his flunky,” Meeks said.
Bitcoin nearly touched the $72,000 mark on Wednesday, marking the second straight day of its massive retreat this week. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency sank as low as $72,096.20, plunging more than 5% on the day. It was last trading at $72,958.38, down about 4% on the day. Bitcoin is currently more than 40% off its record high of about $126,000 hit last October. Bitcoin first broke below the $73,000 mark on Tuesday, hitting its lowest price in roughly 16 months and approaching its pre-election value. Analysts say $70,000 is a key level to watch as the digital asset’s downturn deepens, according to a Citi note to clients dated Tuesday. The token’s value is bleeding as a result of several geopolitical and economic challenges, among other headwinds.
Memory shortages will constrain sales of cell phones for some time, hurting demand for chip industry companies like supplier Qualcomm and chip architecture designer Arm Holdings, executives and analysts said on Wednesday as both companies reported results that disappointed investors. Among the world’s largest smartphone chip designers, Qualcomm is dealing with relatively tepid orders as customers fail to secure memory allocations to ship complete products, resulting in the company forecasting revenue in the current quarter below market estimates. "Industry-wide memory shortage and price increases are likely to define the overall scale of the handset industry through the fiscal year," Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said during a post-earnings call. Qualcomm’s shares dropped nearly 10% in after-hours trade on Wednesday and Arm Holdings fell 8%.
AMD stock slumped on Wednesday, a day after the company’s forecast of a sequential decline in revenue clouded sentiment already weighed down by a rotation out of the heavyweight technology sector. AMD beat Q4 2025 top-and-bottom line estimates, but guided for a Q/Q decline of about 5% in revenue for the current quarter. Shares of the company slid 12.8% after the opening bell. The stock was among the top percentage losers on the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite. Looking at its results, AMD earned $1.53 per share on an adjusted basis on revenue of $10.27 billion for Q4 2025. Analysts had been expecting a profit of $1.32 per share on revenue of $9.64 billion. In terms of guidance, AMD sees Q1 2026 revenue of $9.50 billion to $10.10 billion, versus a consensus of $9.37 billion.
Alphabet is taking on OpenAI with a gusto that underscores Wall Street’s perception that the Google parent is the leader in AI, a turn of events from a year ago when investors thought it was badly lagging behind rivals and punished its stock. Alphabet executives struck a more confident tone on the company’s post-earnings call on Wednesday, the first since it released the Gemini 3 model, which has wowed users and helped Google catch up in the artificial intelligence race. Though it did not mention its chief AI rival by name, Alphabet’s newly confident messaging emphasized a key contrast: Investments in AI have begun to reap returns throughout the entire company. That served as Alphabet’s justification to potentially double its capital expenditures in 2026 - to between $175 billion and $185 billion - as a result of massive investments into AI computing capacity.