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Asia markets plunge as technology rout intensifies

Asian markets fell on Monday, as investors put a halt to the AI rally. Meanwhile, the Israeli strike on Beirut sent oil prices and dollar up.

The 'chip-heavy' KOSPI in South Korea took a beating. It fell more than 6.8% during volatile trading that had earlier caused a temporary halt of 20 minutes. The benchmark has fallen about 14% since last week's high.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 3.4% in the early trading, but U.S. S&P and Nasdaq futures attempted a rebound following a Friday sharp selloff.

Nasdaq dropped by 4.2% after Friday's hot jobs report fueled expectations of Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Marc Velan is the head of investments for Lucerne Asset Management, a Singapore-based asset management firm.

"Korean tech names were among the best performers in the world and heavily owned, so they became a source of liquidity when the rate expectations changed after the jobs report."

The yield on two-year Treasury bonds rose by more than 11 basis point on Friday, and then?by 1.6 basis points to 4.1782% on Monday.

Bob Savage is the head of BNY's?markets and macro strategy.

The key question is whether this?is an opportune pause or a peak in the nine week equity rally. SpaceX and Anthropic's IPO focus is part of this pause - to either make room for a new market cap, or to rethink the value.

INFLATION AND THE ECB Ahead

This week, the focus will be on inflation, with U.S. consumer prices due to be released on Wednesday, and central bank meetings taking place in Canada and Europe.

Bitcoin dropped by 16% last week, its biggest weekly decline since the collapse in 2022 of the crypto exchange FTX. On Monday, it was hovering just below $63,000.

SpaceX's debut will be followed in the coming months by mega-IPOs from?Anthropic? and OpenAI?, which are expected to raise so much money that brokerages are worried it could pull down other assets.

Nick Ferres of Vantage Point Asset Management, Singapore, said that the market has shifted away from moderate inflation, rate cuts, and towards a potential "overheating" which could lead to higher Treasury yields and a path for short-term rates, as well as tighter liquidity.

The Middle East situation remains fragile. Brent crude futures rose about 2.6% to $95.45 per barrel on Monday after an Israeli attack on Beirut led Iran to fire a salvo of missiles on Israeli targets.

OPEC+ decided on Sunday to increase its oil production targets for the fourth time in as many month.

The dollar held firm above 160 yen in the currency market and the Australian dollar rose to $0.7055. The euro was hovering at $1.1531. Reporting by Tom Westbrook, Editing by Aurora Ellis & Shri Navaratnam

(source: Reuters)