Stocks fluctuate after Wall Street sell-off, crude holds losses on peace talks

Published June 23, 2026 Updated June 23, 2026 07:46am

Asian equities fluctuate 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, AFP reports.

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 tumble to drag the Kospi index down more than three per cent, though it is still up more than 100pc since the turn of the year.

Tokyo was also in the red, with tech investment titan SoftBank shedding more than seven percent 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 one percent 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 16pc — wiping hundreds of billions off its valuation — after a record IPO and a winning trio of opening trading sessions.