Earnings at major U.S. companies fell short of market expectations, sending Asian semiconductor stocks sharply lower. Investment funds flowed into U.S. Treasuries, while gold and silver also came under downward pressure.
Earnings at major U.S. technology companies repeatedly fell short of market expectations, intensifying skepticism about the profitability of AI investment. Asian semiconductor stocks faced concentrated selling during Friday's trading, with the Bloomberg Asia Semiconductor Index temporarily falling more than 4.5% and the Nikkei average and TAIEX also posting significant declines.
Among individual stocks, South Korea's SK hynix and Japan's Advantest both fell nearly 9%. TSMC fell more than 2%, while Samsung Electronics fell more than 6%. South Korea's KOSPI fell more than 5.6% during trading, the Nikkei 225 fell nearly 3%, and the TAIEX fell more than 3%.
The immediate catalysts for the selling were INTEL's pessimistic forecast for the PC market, the decline in AMAZON's share price after its AI capital-spending announcement, and Alphabet's disappointing revenue and warning about high spending. Nasdaq futures fell more than 2% during Asian hours, while NVIDIA, Micron and Oracle also declined in after-hours trading.
Intel forecasts that the global PC market will contract by 10% in 2027, following a 12% contraction in 2026. As a result, the share prices of Lenovo and ASUS also fell approximately 7% on Friday. Funds moved into U.S. Treasuries, pushing yields lower across maturities.
The move is also affecting funding pressures for AI infrastructure investment and the business cycle in the memory market, renewing concerns about the outlook for Asia's semiconductor market as a whole.