Stock selloff eases in Asian trade, oil declines: Markets wrap

A selloff in stocks eased during early Monday trading as Asian equities fell less than their Wall Street peers and US equity futures turned higher. Oil declined.

Benchmark indexes in Japan and Australia both fell, while those in South Korea and Hong Kong gained, leaving the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down by 0.4 per cent.

This followed a Friday session where the Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled 3.5 per cent, its worst day since June, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index slumped 7.2 per cent. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both climbed at least 0.4 per cent Monday, pointing to a recovery when US cash markets reopen.

Elsewhere, Brent crude fell 1.5 per cent to about $111.71 a barrel following reports that US President Donald Trump wants to give diplomacy more time before deciding whether to resume strikes on Iran following Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Gold climbed 0.9 per cent to around $3,910 an ounce after falling to its lowest close in more than a year on Friday. Bitcoin climbed for a third day after sinking last week when Binance Holdings revealed a record hack that rattled the crypto industry.

China’s financial regulators will hold a meeting with banks and securities firms Monday to discuss measures to support the capital market, signaling authorities’ renewed effort to halt the slump in Chinese stocks.

Last week’s selloff in tech shares indicates investors are showing less tolerance for tech companies whose core businesses are slowing as AI spending surges.

Results from Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. fueled concerns that AI is eroding the businesses financing those investments. Traders are bracing for more volatility, with the US midterm elections this week and Nvidia Corp. earnings later in November.

“The revelation that these hyperscalers are seeing a slowdown in their core businesses means that the big payoff that everyone has been saying will come eventually is getting pushed even further down the road,” said Matt Maley at Miller Tabak.

All three major Chinese financial regulators, including the People’s Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, will hold meetings with major banks to study optimizing lending programs to support stock buybacks, Chinese media Cailian reported on Sunday.

Binance recorded a net outflow of $3.6 billion in crypto assets after restoring customer withdrawals on Sunday. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange said the flight of funds eased after an initial spike. Binance had frozen withdrawals following Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack while it investigated and stabilized the platform, and pledged to reimburse customers in full.

The dollar was mixed against its Group-of-10 peers on Monday, while US Treasuries edged lower as risks of deepening conflict in the Middle East fanned inflation concerns.

“Markets are placing significant weight on their expectations that US‑Iran fighting will escalate after the US midterm elections on 3 November,” Vivek Dhar, a strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note. “These concerns are justifiable given both the US and Iran believe they have the upper hand in the Middle East.”

Friday’s US stock slump delivered a long-awaited jolt of volatility after disappointing earnings from technology giants intensified concerns about the durability of the AI-driven rally.

The Cboe Volatility Index touched its highest intraday level since April, while demand for puts protecting against further losses surged and correlations among stocks climbed, signs of mounting stress. Still, those measures remain well below levels reached in March after the US and Israel attacked Iran.

The pullback is also prompting some investors to look for buying opportunities. Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson said he sees several “clearing events” ahead that could temporarily push stocks lower and create an opportunity for investors to add exposure.

“This looks more like a bullish rotation with a derating at its core than the beginning of a broad market deterioration,” said Florian Ielpo, head of macro research at Lombard Odier Investment Management.

Corporate Highlights

• Apple Inc. reclaimed the title of world’s most valuable company on Friday, taking the mantle from Nvidia Corp. as investors seek the perceived safety of the iPhone maker amid concerns about artificial intelligence spending.
• DeepSeek has released a prototype of a more autonomous coding agent as it seeks to challenge Anthropic PBC’s popular Claude Code.
• Westpac Banking Corp. Chief Executive Officer Anthony Miller’s pay surged to A$7.5 million ($5.3 million), despite profit missing expectations and the lender flagging an uncertain outlook for Australia’s economy.

Some of the main moves in markets

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% as of 10:45 a.m. Tokyo time
• Nikkei 225 futures (OSE) fell 0.2%
• Japan’s Topix fell 0.4%
• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.6%
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8%
• The Shanghai Composite rose 0.3%
• Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.1%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
• The euro was little changed at $1.1170
• The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 157.77 per dollar
• The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.6534 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 0.9% to $78,477.18
• Ether rose 1.4% to $2,293.24

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.94%
• Japan’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 2.775%
• Australia’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 5.14%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.3% to $101.74 a barrel
• Spot gold rose 0.9% to $3,910.67 an ounce

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