Chip sell-off deepens in Asia as SK Hynix sinks over 10%; TSMC reports results today

A sell-off in chip and AI-linked stocks deepened across Asia on Thursday. South Korea's benchmark Kospi fell more than 7%, according to AP and Investing.com, while Japan's Nikkei 225 lost more than 4% at one point. Memory makers were hit hardest: SK Hynix slid about 11%, Samsung Electronics fell more than 8%, and Japanese flash specialist Kioxia dropped more than 10%. SoftBank Group and equipment maker Tokyo Electron also fell sharply.

The slide followed losses on Wall Street after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index posted a sixth straight decline, its longest losing streak since May 2025. Implied odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike in late October rose to 31.6%, according to Investing.com. Concerns over debt in the AI sector added pressure, after cloud provider CoreWeave's shares fell as much as 17% on Wednesday.

Attention now turns to TSMC. The world's largest contract chipmaker, a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, reports third-quarter results at 2 p.m. Taipei time (0600 GMT). Analysts expect net profit of T$746.3 billion ($23.4 billion), up 65% and a sixth consecutive record, according to an LSEG SmartEstimate cited by Reuters. TSMC has already reported quarterly revenue of about T$1.49 trillion, up 50% from a year earlier. Its shares fell more than 2% ahead of the release.