Synopsis
Asian stocks fell as AI’s impact on profits and pricing uncertainty worried investors. Wall Street saw a significant decline, with technology stocks particularly affected by fears of AI disruption. This follows a strong start to the year for Asian markets compared to the United States.
P.A.The United States is preparing a series of additional national security investigations that would allow Trump to impose new tariffs, as the administration seeks to rebuild its global tariff regime.
Asian stocks fell at the open after fresh concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on corporate profits rattled Wall Street, while uncertainty over tariffs added to traders’ worries.
THE MSCI Asia Pacific Index edged down 0.2%, with South Korea’s stocks – a proxy for AI investment – down 0.5%. Attention will later turn to mainland Chinese markets, which are expected to reopen after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The moves in Asia came after the S&P 500 index fell 1%, with technology, delivery and payments stocks taking a hit as Citrini Research exposed the potential. AI risks for various industries. International Business Machines Corp. fell 13%, its worst day since October 2000, as Anthropic said its Claude code could help modernize COBOL, a programming language primarily run on IBM computers.
Amid continued uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs, concerns about AI-driven disruption are prompting traders to dump shares of any company seen as at even the slightest risk of being squeezed out. These concerns have also grown despite strong results from mega-caps and doubts about whether big investments in technology will soon pay off.
“The software selloff is a reminder of what can happen when dynamic sectors reverse,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers. “The larger and more important question is: How many sectors can reverse before taking the market as a whole with them?
While software companies have been among the hardest hit, insurance brokers, private lending companies, cybersecurity companies and even real estate services companies in the United States have all been caught up in what is known as the AI scare trade.
Asian stocks have outperformed, with the regional MSCI index up 12% this year, compared with a 0.1% decline for the S&P 500 over the same period. This is the best start to the year on record for the index relative to the US benchmark.
Elsewhere in the market, Treasuries and gold held onto gains from the U.S. session, when traders reduced risk and sought safe-haven assets. Bitcoin continued to trade below $65,000. The dollar was little changed at the start of the session on Tuesday.
In other commodities, oil stabilized as Trump declared his preference for a nuclear deal with Iran ahead of negotiations between the two countries this week.
Meanwhile, questions about U.S. tariffs added to Monday’s pessimistic mood.
After the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to reverse Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, the White House announced plans to replace the previous levies with a new across-the-board 15% tariff on U.S. imports. The European Union has frozen the ratification of its trade agreement with the United States amid uncertainty.
The United States is preparing a series of additional national security investigations that would allow Trump to impose new tariffs, as the administration seeks to rebuild its global tariff regime.
The administration is considering new national security tariffs on a half-dozen industries, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the plan.
“Tariff-related tensions will likely be a distracting theme for markets for the rest of the year, although with less volatility than the initial shock last April,” said Michael Landsberg of Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management.
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(What’s moving Sensex And Clever Track latest market news, stock market advice, Budget 2025, Equity market on the 2025 budget And expert adviceon AND Markets. Additionally, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For the fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stock market alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)
Subscribe to AND Bonus and read it Electronic document on economic times Online.and Sensex today.
Most trending stocks: SBI share price, Axis Bank share price, HDFC Bank share price, Infosys share price, Wipro stock price, NTPC stock price
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