KOSPI crashes 8% to below 5,000, Nikkei plunges 5% as US elections trigger AI rout; Samsung, SK Hynix sink
South Korea's KOSPI plunged nearly 9 percent, triggering a circuit breaker, while Japan's Nikkei tumbled over 5 percent as the US midterm election results sparked a global AI stock rout. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, TSMC and SoftBank led the selloff amid fears of tighter AI regulation and slowing data centre investments.