Low angle view of tall buildings in Tokyo, Japan, showcasing diverse architectural styles
George Pachantouris | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets mostly fell Wednesday, tracking Wall Street losses after a sell-off in U.S. technology stocks weighed on sentiment, while gold extended gains for a second day.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.2%, dragged by tech stocks. Among the biggest losers on the index were chip equipment maker Lasertec, which plunged 7%, and game maker Konami Group, which lost 5.8%. Japanese semiconductor equipment powerhouse Tokyo Electron also declined 3.2%.
The Topix declined 0.39%.
Australia’sย S&P/ASX 200 reversed course and rose 0.45%.
South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.4%, while the small-cap Kosdaq added 1.01%.
Nintendo shares dropped more than 9%, despite maintaining its full-year sales forecast for the Switch 2 console, as investors assessed several potential headwinds for the gaming giant, including whether the company will be impacted by an unprecedented surge in memory prices โ a key component in its consoles.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index declined 0.1%, while the CSI 300 fell 0.28%.
Spot gold prices added more than 1% to $5,002 per ounce, while spot silver added 0.69% to $85.70 per ounce.
Overnight in the U.S., theย S&P 500ย pulled back as investors dumped technology stocks and moved into shares more broadly linked to improvements in the economy.
The broad market index fell 0.84% and closed at 6,917.81. Theย Dow Jones Industrial Averageย dipped 166.67 points, or 0.34%, to end at 49,240.99. Earlier, the 30-stock index rose as much as 0.5% to touch 49,653.13, a new record. Theย Nasdaq Compositeย shed 1.43%, settling at 23,255.19.
Most tech shares were in the red, including most of the “Magnificent Seven” names that have reported earnings so far โย Microsoftย andย Meta Platformsย were both down more than 2%, whileย Appleย was marginally lower.ย Nvidiaย also slumped, with the artificial intelligence bellwether’s nearly 3% drop adding to its losses for the year. Meanwhile, software stocks continued their 2026 tumble, with shares of ServiceNow andย Salesforceย falling by nearly 7% each.
โ CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
