Stock Market Live Updates: Asia Rebounds After Rout
Asian stock markets climbed on Monday after last week’s tech rout, with Taiwan’s benchmark index leading the recovery and Japan’s Nikkei posting a strong gain, as investors returned to equities following a turbulent week marked by heavy selling in technology stocks. The rebound followed a partial recovery on Wall Street on Friday and suggested that the worst of the selling may have passed, but the gains faded in several markets as the day wore on, and the shadow of a new investigation into Nvidia’s chief executive kept sentiment fragile. Stock market live updates through the session told two stories at once: a market eager to buy the dip, and a market still unsure whether the dip is over.
Taipei’s Taiex led the gains, closing up 4.94 percent. In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 2.33 percent, while the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney edged up 0.099 percent. In Seoul, the Kospi fell 0.8 percent after earlier rising about 1.7 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipped 0.22 percent. Futures for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index were up 0.17 percent as of 07:30 GMT, while those tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were down 0.24 percent, after both had dipped earlier on the Nvidia news. The mixed finish — strong in Taiwan and Japan, fading in Korea and Hong Kong — captured the mood of a market that has been whipsawed for a week and has not yet decided which way it trusts.
Why Is the Stock Market Up Today
The rebound comes after the United States midterm results prompted a 2.5 trillion dollar sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday, amid concerns that Democratic-controlled legislatures could slow the rollout of data centers used to power artificial intelligence. The tech rout spilled into Asia on Friday, with the Nikkei 225 and Kospi plunging about 6 percent and 9 percent respectively, and the Hang Seng Index dropping more than 1 percent. The selling was concentrated in the companies most tied to the artificial intelligence boom: chipmakers, equipment suppliers, and the infrastructure firms building the data centers that power the new systems.
The midterm trigger was straightforward. Democrats swept both houses of Congress in the elections, and investors worried that a Democratic-led Congress could slow AI data-center expansion, tighten regulation of artificial intelligence development, and scrutinize the subsidies and energy arrangements that underpin the build-out. The technology sell-off was partly driven by that fear, and it was deepened by doubts that had been building for weeks about whether the enormous capital spending on data centers, chips, and power will produce adequate returns. Global stocks had already been under pressure in recent weeks, with the AI trade crumbling amid rising interest rates, and the midterm results deepened worries about increased regulation of AI and data centers.
“We view the recent drawdown in AI infrastructure names as a function of tighter financial conditions, growing scrutiny over credit availability for neocloud companies, and uncertainty over potential delays to the AI build-out post the US midterm election results,” Cameron Chui, Asia equity strategist at JP Morgan Private Bank in Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera. “That being said, AI demand and adoption remain strong, 2027 capex visibility remains high, and a meaningful valuation reset has already taken place that at least partly factors in these concerns. In Asia, we see attractive upside potential in both Taiwan and South Korea, while acknowledging that earnings downside risks have materially risen for 2028, widening the range of potential outcomes.”
The scale of last week’s damage explains why Monday’s rebound, even a partial one, mattered. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 2 percent on Monday after sliding 4.6 percent last week. Taiwan’s benchmark recorded its steepest weekly drop in two decades last week, when fears about AI profitability and infrastructure demand sparked the rout. The brutal stock losses last week prompted both South Korean and Taiwanese authorities to intervene to stem losses in local equities. Friday brought some relief on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent and trimmed its loss for the week to 2.7 percent, its worst since Trump shook markets in April 2025 with his Liberation Day tariffs, and Asian markets largely followed suit at the start of the week.
Taiwan and Japan Lead the Rebound
The morning’s gains were strongest where the selling had been worst. Taiwan’s Taiex was 5.72 percent higher in early trading, and it closed up 4.94 percent, recovering after notching up its steepest weekly drop in two decades last week. The rebound was led by computer chipmaker TSMC, which surged nearly 6 percent and helped lift the broader index. Taiwan’s market is heavily weighted toward the companies that make the chips at the heart of the AI boom, so it fell hardest when the trade cracked and rose fastest when buyers returned. The Taiex climbed around 5.30 percent to 41,800 in one reading during the session, before settling at its closing gain.
In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 3.45 percent in early trading and closed with a 2.33 percent gain, at 59,411.34 in one morning reading. The rally was led by Kioxia, Tokyo Electron and Advantest, the equipment and memory names that had been hit hard in the sell-off. Japan’s market, like Taiwan’s, is heavily weighted toward AI-linked technology giants, and it followed the same pattern: a sharp fall on Friday, when the Nikkei plunged about 6 percent, and a strong recovery on Monday as buyers stepped back in. The Nikkei rose 2.90 percent to 59,090 in one reading during the session, reflecting the strong early momentum before some of the gain faded.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 1.5 percent to 5,137.22 in morning trading, with Samsung Electronics gaining 2.7 percent and chipmaker SK Hynix jumping 3.9 percent, but the index seesawed between mild gains and losses through the day and closed 0.8 percent lower. Heavyweight chip makers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose 0.4 percent and 0.6 percent respectively by the close. The fade in Seoul was the day’s clearest sign that the rebound is fragile: the same market that had plunged about 9 percent on Friday could not hold its morning gain, even with its biggest chip names higher.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.2 percent to 24,525.58 in early trading and dipped 0.22 percent by the close, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.4 percent to 3,663.91 in one reading and 0.7 percent to 3,675.06 in another. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1 percent lower to 9,011.50, and Sydney, Wellington and Manila edged lower. Markets in Singapore and Malaysia were closed Monday for a holiday. The pattern across the region was the same: a strong open, led by technology, and a softer close in several markets as investors took profits and waited for the next catalyst.
Nvidia Probe Keeps Wall Street on Edge
The day’s other drag on sentiment came from Nvidia, the chip company that has become the face of the boom and possible bust of the AI frenzy. Futures for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 dipped earlier following the announcement that Nvidia’s board would investigate its chief executive, Jensen Huang, over a romantic relationship he conducted with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. Nvidia’s board said that while it had confidence in Huang and had no reason to believe that national security or company secrets were compromised, an independent inquiry would examine “all available information.” The board said Huang supported the inquiry and pledged his full cooperation.
“The Board prioritises US national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the company said. Nvidia shares fell approximately 3.5 percent in after-hours trading on the Blue Ocean alternative trading system following the reports, and its Frankfurt-traded shares were more than 6 percent lower in early European trading. The probe adds a new kind of risk — governance and national security — to a trade already carrying valuation risk, regulatory risk, and execution risk, and it lands on the most important company in the trade.
Friday’s session on Wall Street had shown how quickly sentiment can turn. The Nasdaq Composite bounced 1.09 percent to 24,579.42, and the S&P 500 rose 0.31 percent to 7,376.86, in a recovery led by technology: the semiconductor index jumped 4.2 percent, Nvidia rose 2.8 percent, AMD climbed 11 percent, and Sandisk gained almost 4 percent. But the bounce did not repair the damage from the week. The Nasdaq lost 3.37 percent over the week, the S&P 500 fell 2.68 percent — its largest weekly percentage decline since the week ended April 4, 2025 — and the Dow declined 0.94 percent. The Nasdaq has now fallen for four consecutive weeks, and it sits in correction territory, more than 10 percent below its peak from a month ago. Thursday’s rout was the sharpest single day of the selloff: the Nasdaq plunged 5.5 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 4.4 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.4 percent.
Earnings Reports and CPI Inflation Data Ahead
The week ahead will test whether Monday’s rebound holds. Inflation data arrives on Tuesday, and it will shape expectations for the Federal Reserve’s December decision, with the market pricing in a nearly 80 percent chance of a rate increase. Earnings reports due this week from tech companies including CoreWeave, Applied Materials and Cisco Systems are set to put the profitability of AI ambitions to the test amid the massive costs of the build-out. The question investors keep asking is whether the enormous capital spending on data centers, chips, and power will produce adequate returns, and how long the build-out can continue at its current pace.
The bull case is that the selling has been indiscriminate, that earnings like AMD’s show the demand is real, and that the market is oversold. The bear case is that the valuations were priced for perfection, that the midterm results have changed the regulatory outlook, and that the capital spending that drove the boom is now being questioned by the very companies doing the spending. Chui’s assessment points in both directions at once: demand and adoption remain strong and 2027 capital spending visibility remains high, but earnings downside risks for 2028 have materially risen, widening the range of potential outcomes. That is a careful way of saying the next two years could go either way, and that the market is no longer willing to assume the best.
For now, the facts are these: Taiwan’s Taiex closed up 4.94 percent, Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.33 percent, and MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index outside Japan gained 2 percent after losing 4.6 percent last week. But South Korea’s Kospi closed 0.8 percent lower after rising 1.7 percent in the morning, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.22 percent, and United States futures were mixed, with the S&P 500 up 0.17 percent and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.24 percent. The rebound is real, and so is the fragility underneath it. This week’s inflation data and earnings will give both sides new evidence, and the market will move on whichever side the evidence favors.
*Source: Al Jazeera*