Asian Stocks Fall as Alphabet's Slide Weighs on Tech — Update

By Megan Cheah and Sherry Qin

Asian stocks declined Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street, as a disappointing revenue from Google parent Alphabet drove investors to trim their technology holdings.

The company, a major hyperscaler in the artificial-intelligence boom, lost half a trillion dollars in market value on Thursday after Google's search revenue growth in the third quarter waned due to the less-lucrative nature of AI searches.

"Enthusiasm for artificial intelligence can sustain high expectations, but results must demonstrate progress in profitability and cash generation," said Antonio Di Giacomo, senior market analyst at XS.com. "In this environment, the market can punish even substantial revenue growth when earnings disappoint, or investment requirements continue to rise."

Alphabet's plunge weighed on U.S. technology stocks, and the selloff appears likely to continue, with stock futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq declining 2.4% in Asia.

These losses also spilled over into Asia. South Korea's Kospi slid 3.3%, though it pulled off its early lows. Index heavyweight chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped 5.0% and 7.6%, respectively. The former extended Thursday's declines after it posted third-quarter results, while the latter appears on track to snap a five-session winning streak. The Korea Exchange briefly suspended trading of Kospi stocks after futures tied to the index fell more than 5%.

For Asia's AI infrastructure builders, their exceptional margins could be hard to sustain, Saxo Markets chief investment strategist Charu Chanana said. "Over time, new manufacturing facilities, additional memory production and greater availability of computing infrastructure could reduce shortages and put pressure on pricing," she said.

Shares of Japan's Softbank Group Corp., a prominent AI investor, slid 6.5%. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.2%, Taiwan's Taiex shed 2.2% and China's Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.3%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was an outlier, rising 1.6%, while the city's tech gauge added 1.4%.

Oil prices rose as traders weighed fresh efforts to revive peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran against persistent Middle East supply risks and the potential for a renewed escalation in the conflict.

"The physical constraints keeping the oil market tight are unlikely to dissipate before year-end," said ANZ Research strategists. Buffers that absorbed the initial shock of disrupted supply from the conflict have been drawn down, tanker availability has tightened and alternative export routes have been stretched, they said.

Exports from the Persian Gulf also appear to be weakening, while the effective surplus capacity of oil cartel OPEC was estimated to be zero under current logistical constraints, they added.

ANZ Research raised its year-end Brent forecast to $105 a barrel from $95 a barrel, but said the revision doesn't assume another escalation in Middle East hostilities.

Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures rose 1.15% to $103.17 a barrel, while front-month Brent gained 1.1% to $116.10 a barrel.

Gold declined, with its spot price slipping below the key $4000 level to be 0.6% lower at $3,995.23 a troy ounce. Expectations of tighter monetary policy across major economies are supporting bond yields and pressuring the precious metal, said Infinox's Thadeu Dos Santos in a note. A higher interest-rate environment typically weighs on nonyielding assets such as gold.

Write to Megan Cheah at megan.cheah@wsj.com and Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 30, 2026 01:22 ET (05:22 GMT)