Taiwan Stock Market Suffers Largest Point Drop in History, South Korea Triggers Circuit Breaker, AI Chain Plunges Across Asia
nashnova research
Asian markets cratered on November 6 as Taiwan's Taiex plunged 3,737 points — its largest single-day point drop on record — South Korea triggered a circuit breaker, and Japan's Nikkei fell below 60,000, all driven by fears that the Democratic sweep in the U.S. midterms could slow AI infrastructure buildout.
How bad was Taiwan's drop, and why is it "the biggest ever"?
The Taiex plunged 3,737.67 points within minutes of the open, hitting a low of 37,837.05. Taiwan's Central News Agency confirmed this as the index's largest single-day point decline on record.
TSMC fell more than 8% and was the dominant drag on the index. This means → when one stock can pull the entire benchmark down this far, the index's dependence on the AI supply chain is already extreme.
In plain terms = Taiwan's record wasn't caused by anything domestic. It was global AI-chain panic concentrated on TSMC.
How did Korea and Japan fare?
South Korea's KOSPI fell as much as 8.7%. SK Hynix dropped 13.8%; Samsung Electronics fell 11.0%. The Korea Exchange activated its circuit breaker — an automatic trading halt triggered when declines are too steep — to contain the selloff.
Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped over 4,100 points, or roughly 6.7%, breaking below 60,000 for the first time since mid-May. It was also the index's steepest intraday fall since the Iran war broke out in March.
The hardest-hit Japanese stocks were in the AI sector: Kioxia Holdings, SoftBank Group, and Advantest all led losses. Japan's VIX — a gauge of market fear — spiked to 48, its highest in over seven months.
What actually triggered the crash?
The immediate catalyst was Wall Street's selloff the night before. The Nasdaq hit a six-month low; the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell as much as 12%. Nvidia, Micron, and data-center stock CoreWeave were all hit hard.
The core pressure came from U.S. midterm results: Democrats won majorities in both chambers and took governor's races in Texas, Georgia, and other data-center-heavy states.
Senator Bernie Sanders called for "an immediate nationwide data-center moratorium" on social media. This means → the market's real fear is not the election itself but that the outcome could directly slow the pace of AI infrastructure investment.
Where did the safe-haven money go?
The yen rose roughly 0.3% against the dollar to about 157.60 — capital flowing from risk assets into a traditional haven currency.
Japanese government bonds were bid up, pushing 10-year yields down to 2.665%, the lowest since late June. In plain terms = bond prices up, yields down — a textbook sign that large sums are leaving equities and piling into "safe" assets.
Is the selloff over, or just beginning?
The key question now: has this Asian plunge already priced in the regulatory risk, or is it merely a passive pass-through of Wall Street's selloff?
The answer hinges on substantive policy action in the U.S. If Sanders' "moratorium" stays at the slogan level, markets may stabilize quickly. If legislation actually advances, the AI-chain adjustment is only starting.
This reflects a deeper signal: valuations across the global AI supply chain no longer depend on technology alone — political risk is becoming a core pricing variable.
市场有风险，内容仅供研究参考，不构成投资建议。