Japan opened in the red as semiconductor-linked names slumped and investors questioned how durable the artificial intelligence trade really is. On the Nikkei 225, technology shares led the drop, with Taiyo Yuden Co. and Sumco Corp. among the weakest performers. On the broader Topix, Advantest Corp. weighed most on the benchmark.
The mood echoed Friday's retreat in U.S. chip stocks. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index recorded its eighth straight decline, the longest run of daily losses since 2008. In the U.S., cloud-computing service provider CoreWeave Inc. sank 12% on Friday amid a push and pull between worries over rising bond yields and hopes that demand for computing power eventually prevails.
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Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors, a Japan equity strategist based in Singapore, wrote, "Financing is rapidly emerging as a new and potentially systemic risk" facing the AI sector. He added, "The reality of this financing crunch is becoming impossible to ignore." Earnings now come into focus: more than 70 S&P 500 companies report this week, including Tesla Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., while in Japan, Disco Corp. and Fanuc Corp. are slated to post quarterly results.
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