Asian stocks skid on AI worries, Wall Street and bonds aided by oil slip

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the president would take up to 60 days to assess the economic impact of such a move. Brent futures still fell 1.6% to $108.06 a barrel, while US crude futures lost 0.7% to $100.70 a barrel. Meanwhile, Iran reported another tanker had hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz. Geopolitical tensions combined with safe-haven flows from equities to extend a rally in sovereign bonds, with 10-year Treasury yields down 3 basis points at 5.0645%, having just recorded their largest weekly fall in over eight months.

All of this helped S&P 500 futures edge up 0.5%, while Nasdaq futures rose 0.8%. Asian markets were hampered by concerns about tech; Japan's Nikkei fell 2.0% after losing 5.4% last ‌week as the tech sector took a beating. South Korea dropped 1.6%, having shed more than 14% last week. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3%. "Investors have long worried that AI revenues won't be sufficient to recoup the massive upfront investment, while AI infrastructure may need to be written down as it ages and depreciates in the meantime, which lowers book value massively," said My Bui, an economist at fund manager AMP.

"Rising government bond yields and wider corporate credit spreads are increasing financing costs, making it harder to borrow, refinance, and keep the AI infrastructure build-out going." The PHLX Semiconductor Index shed 11.4% last week in its longest losing streak since 2008. Investors will be hoping Meta will ‌beat Wall Street forecasts when it reports earnings on Wednesday, along with semiconductor firms Lam Research and Texas Instruments and Elon Musk-led companies SpaceX and Tesla.

Meta is one of five AI hyperscalers that combined are expected to increase ​their capital spending ‌to about $1.2 trillion next year, according to Goldman Sachs. Others reporting include Netflix, Procter & Gamble, General Motors and GE Aerospace. Earnings are still ‌expected to rise 30% overall thanks to the huge profits made by tech firms. European stocks were weighed down by political uncertainty in France with EUROSTOXX 50 futures off 0.4%, while DAX futures lost 0.3% and FTSE futures were flat.

Those ‌same ​concerns saw the ​euro ease 0.2% to $1.1212, nearer to last week's 16-month low of $1.1113. The dollar dipped 0.1% against the yen to 157.75 and has spent the entire month so far in a tight range as the threat of Japanese ‌intervention has kept speculative ​sellers at bay. In commodity markets, non-interest-bearing gold got a lift from falling yields and rose 0.4% to $4,181 an ounce. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel First Published: Oct 19 2026 | 7:33 AM IST