World shares retreat after losses for Big Tech pull US stocks lower
[November 05, 2025] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — Shares in Europe and Asia retreated Wednesday following a
decline on Wall Street spurred by selling of Big Tech shares.
But benchmarks in Asia recovered much of the ground lost earlier in the
day, when Tokyo’s Nikkei fell nearly 5%. It recovered to close 2.5%
lower, at 50,212.27.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX gave up 0.7% to 23,777.85,
while the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.4% to 8,039.32. Britain's FTSE 100
edged 0.1% lower, to 9,707.18.
The future for the S&P 500 slipped 0.1%, while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.
The spillover from Wall Street was evident. Shares in energy and tech
giant SoftBank Group sank 10% on jitters over its investments in
artificial intelligence. Computer chip maker Tokyo Electron dropped
4.1%, while stock in Advantest Corp., a maker of semiconductor testing
equipment, lost 6%.
Toyota Motor Corp. lost 3.7%. The company reported a 7% decline in its
profit for the April-September period, but raised its earnings forecast
for the year, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's higher tariffs on
imports of autos and auto parts.
South Korea's Kospi declined 2.9% to 4,004.42 as Samsung Electronics
shed 4.1%. SK Hynix, which had logged major gains thanks to plans to
develop artificial intelligence with chip maker Nvidia, lost 1.2%.
Chinese markets wavered between gains and losses. The Shanghai Composite
index recovered from modest earlier losses to edge 0.2% higher, to
3,969.25. Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.1% to 25,935.41.
Investors apparently took fright from heavy selling of high tech related
shares overnight on Wall Street. The technology sector has been driving
gains this year, and huge values for companies including Nvidia and
Microsoft give them outsized influence over the broader market’s
direction.
The price of gold, which tends to climb in times of uncertainty, jumped
0.8% to $3,990.90 an ounce.
“The rally that began in April is finally feeling its age. What we are
seeing today wasn’t just a dip; it was a full-scale reality check,”
Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
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A dealer talks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock
Price Index (KOSPI) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South
Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
 “This wasn’t the usual intraday
shake-out. It felt more like the oxygen suddenly thinning at the top
of a mountain that everyone assumed had no summit,” he said.
Palantir Technologies, which creates software platforms for data,
fell 7.9% despite reporting results that beat analysts’ forecasts.
Chip maker Nvidia also reversed course from a day earlier, falling
4%, while Microsoft fell 0.5%.
Other sectors also declined, leading the S&P 500 to give up 1.2%.
The index is still up more than 15% for the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5% and the technology
heavy Nasdaq fell 2%.
Wall Street remains focused on corporate earnings. Roughly three out
of every four companies within the S&P 500 have reported their
latest results, and most have been better than analysts expected.
Several big companies will report their latest financial results
later this week, including McDonald's, Expedia Group and Qualcomm.
The latest round of corporate profit reports and forecasts have
taken on more significance for Wall Street due to the U.S.
government shutdown. Investors and economists are trying to gauge
the health and direction of the U.S. economy without the latest
economic updates on inflation and employment.
Outside of earnings, Tesla fell 5.1% after Norway’s sovereign wealth
fund, one of the electric car maker’s biggest investors, said
Tuesday that it will vote against a proposed compensation package
that could pay CEO Elon Musk as much as $1 trillion over a decade.
In other dealings early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 14
cents to $60.42 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard,
shed 14 cents to $64.29 per barrel.
The dollar fell to 153.53 Japanese yen from 153.66 yen. The euro
rose to $1.1495 from $1.1482.
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