Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average tumbled 5.39 percent on Thursday, hitting an intraday low of 64,092.74 points during afternoon trade in Tokyo.

The drop wiped out recent gains across the benchmark index as semiconductor equipment makers, memory producers and technology conglomerates tracked sharp losses from Wall Street.

Selling started at the opening bell and deepened through the session. Chip-testing equipment manufacturer Advantest dropped more than 15 percent by midday, while fabrication gear supplier Tokyo Electron fell about 8 percent. Tech investment giant SoftBank Group slid more than 10 percent, and flash-memory manufacturer Kioxia shed over 11 percent.

The rout swept immediately into Seoul, where heavy exposure to memory chips triggered steeper losses across the Kospi. South Korea’s benchmark fell nearly 8 percent, pulled down by an almost 10 percent drop in Samsung Electronics and an 11 percent tumble at SK Hynix.

For hardware operators and component procurement managers across Asia, the valuation drop reflects growing investor hesitation around capital expenditure timelines for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Equipment vendors face tighter scrutiny on order backlogs as customer balance sheets absorb higher financing costs. The pressure spreads down the supply tier to component distributors, who must navigate sudden shifts in inventory financing rates while factory input costs remain high.

Higher consumer prices in North America sparked the slide. 7 percent on Wednesday, prompting futures traders to briefly price in a 50 percent probability of an interest rate increase before odds settled back to 27 percent. The US Federal Reserve holds its next policy meeting on Oct.

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