Japanese and Korean stock markets opened lower and fell; South Korea’s KOSPI activated the sidecar mechanism to suspend programmatic sell orders.

As the global chip stock sell-off persists, investors are becoming increasingly cautious about the sustainability of the AI investment boom and the earnings outlook of related companies, leading to lower openings in the Japanese and South Korean stock markets. The Nikkei 225 index dropped over 3% during trading, while Kioxia fell more than 8%. South Korea's KOSPI index declined for the seventh consecutive trading day, with intraday losses reaching 6%, hitting its lowest level since July 31. Semiconductor heavyweights were the main drag, with Samsung Electronics down more than 7% and SK Hynix tumbling over 8%. Subsequently, the Korea Exchange activated the sidecar mechanism for the KOSPI index, temporarily halting programmatic sell orders.