Currency dealers monitor exchange rates in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on Jun 23, 2026. (Photo: AFP/Jade Gao)
23 Jun 2026 10:54AM
(Updated: 23 Jun 2026 10:59AM)
HONG KONG: Asian equities fluctuated on Tuesday (Jun 23) following a tech-led sell-off on Wall Street as investors again questioned a long-running AI-fuelled boom, while crude largely held losses that came on the back of positive US-Iran talks.While Washington and Tehran flagged progress at peace negotiations in Switzerland, traders are struggling to build on last week's rally sparked by news of a deal to end the Middle East conflict.Tech firms - the main driver of a surge across world markets as investors pile into all things AI - took a hit in Asia.South Korean chip giants SK hynix and Samsung tumbled to drag the Kospi index down more than 3 per cent, though it is still up more than 100 per cent since the turn of the year.
Tokyo was also in the red, with tech investment titan SoftBank shedding more than 7 per cent and chipmaker Tokyo Electron down.Taipei and Shanghai were down, with Hong Kong and Sydney flat. Singapore, Wellington and Manila edged up.The tepid performance followed a sharp drop on Wall Street, where the Nasdaq sank more than 1 per cent as market giants Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft were sharply down.But the main victim of the day was Elon Musk's SpaceX, which plunged more than 16 per cent - wiping hundreds of billions off its valuation - after a record IPO and a winning trio of opening trading sessions.The fall came as the rocket and satellite company disclosed plans for an "inaugural" bond offering of unspecified quantity.
