Asian Stocks Plunge as Wall Street Woes Deepen

Asian stocks took a hit on Wednesday after Wall Street suffered losses and global bond market woes deepened.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo plummeted by 2.9% to 64,325.64, while the Kospi in South Korea dropped 4% to 6,562.72. SoftBank Group, a Japanese multinational investment holding firm that invests in OpenAI, fell 6.4%, and Samsung Electronics declined 4%. SK Hynix, a memory chipmaker, also lost 4.7%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng slipped by 0.3% to 25,250.77, with Shein, a fast-fashion online retail giant that listed on Tuesday, dropping 3.3%. The Shanghai Composite index slid 1% to 3,941.39.

The sell-off in bonds continued, with the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury rising to around 4.80% from 4.75% on Monday. This is an increase from its January low of 4.20%. The 2-year Treasury yield, which tracks Federal Reserve interest rate moves more closely, was at about 4.39%, up from 4.34% on Monday.