Global stocks tumble as AI panic grips markets after Democrats’ midterm success – business live

Despite the sharp losses suffered on global stock markets around the world, most indices are still up for the year. The Nasdaq Composite index, for example, is still up 4.6% since the start of January – even though it’s more than 10% below its peak. Britain’s FTSE 100 share index has gained almost 6.9% in 2026, even though – at 10,615 points – it’s more than 300 points below the record high set in July. South Korea’s KOSPI is up over 29% year to date – which sounds impressive until you remember that it doubled in the first half of 2026, driven by huge demand for chipmakers Samsung and SK Hynix from the AI industry. China’s CSI 300 stock index, though, are down over 12% this year – its AI stocks fell sharply a few months ago. Europe has joined the global selloff. The FTSE 100 index, which tracks blue-chip shares listed in London, has dropped by 166 points, or over 1.5%, at the start of trading to 10,615 points. Most of the hundred stocks on the index are down. Pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca (-2.8%) are the top faller on the FTSE 100. Other fallers include IAG (-1.5%) which owns British Airways, after it which missed profit forecasts this morning and warned that its annual capacity would be slightly lower than a year earlier. Germany’s DAX index is down 1.5%, France’s CAC 40 has dropped by 1.2% at the open, Spain’s IBEX is down 1.1%. Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, says: “The tech sell-off has intensified, with the pain of the brutal sell-off on Wall Street carried straight through to Asia and knocking sentiment in Europe. Big worries are colliding – the build-out of data centres looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment. Donald Trump isn’t really correct to say that the stock market “suffered one of the worst days in history”. Yesterday’s 3.44% tumble on the Dow Jones industrial average (DJIA) certainly doesn’t compare with Black Monday (October 19 1987), when the Dow crashed by 22.6%. Since then, there was a 7.87% drop on 15 October 2008 (the financial crisis), a 12.9% tumble on 16 March 2020 (the Covid-19 pandemic) and a 5.6% drop in April 2000 (after the dot-com bubble burst), to pick a few recent bad days since. Indeed, there seem to have been more than 70 larger falls on the DJIA since 1987 (based on my eyeballing of the data). The DJIA tracks 30 large US companies, including Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Coca-Cola and Walt Disney. But in value terms, it was a more significant selloff, especially for tech stocks. The Nasdaq 100 Index sank 6.4%, wiping out $2.3tn in market value, the most on record, Bloomberg has calculated. There were some dramatic scenes in Asia-Pacific stock markets today. In Taiwan, the benchmark Taiex stock index plunged a record 3,737.67 points in early trading. It closed down 1,791 points, or 4.6%. Taiwanese stocks had benefited from the AI boom – earlier this week, the Taiex index was up more than 50% for the year. Over in Seoul, the Kospi index fell to its lowest level since early April, in a slump which triggered a 20-minute circuit breaker. Stocks aren’t the only thing dropping in value! UK house prices fell by 0.6% in October, new data from Lloyds bank shows. Prices were 1.2% lower than a year ago, the biggest annual fall since October 2023. A Reuters poll of economists had predicted a 0.1% monthly increase and an annual fall of 0.3%. Lloyds reports that the average property price dropped to £296,285 last month, down from £298,167 in September. Andrew Asaam, mortgages director at Lloyds, explains: “Housing demand is currently being tested by a challenging economic backdrop. Renewed inflationary pressures, driven in part by the conflict in the Middle East, are keeping borrowing costs high and adding to the squeeze on household finances, making some buyers understandably more cautious. European stock markets are expected to join the selloff when trading begins, in around 45 minutes. The UK’s FTSE 100 share index is being called down over 1% in IG’s futures market, as is Germany’s DAX index. Japan’s Nikkei share average has posted its worst week in more than six years. For the week, the benchmark was down 9.3%, its worst weekly decline since March 2020 during the pandemic, Reuters points out. Donald Trump has blamed the Democratic party for the market selloff. Posting on his Truth Social site, the president wrote: The Stock Market suffered one of the Worst Days in History based on the results of the Election. Such a sad thing to watch! It took so much work to get us to a level that no one has ever seen before, and then this. Your 401(k)s have, therefore, dropped. Remember, it wasn’t Republicans, it was Dumocrats. Do not fear, however, we will soon, one way or the other, be BIGGER AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP He then appeared to blame the voters too (!), adding: The Stock Market crashed today because the Dumocrats had a big Tuesday — So sad to see, you only have yourselves to blame! President DONALD J. TRUMP The Financial Times have calculated that US stocks shed $3.2tn on Thursday, in a day of “chaotic trading”. Thet explain: The market value drop on the S&P Composite 1500 index, a broad basket of America’s publicly traded companies, was the biggest since the turn of the millennium, according to FT calculations based on FactSet data Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Fears that the Democratic Party’s blue wave in this week’s midterm elections will sink the AI investment boom are roiling markets, following heavy losses on Wall Street last night. Asia-Pacific markets are a sea of red (unlike the US election map on Tuesday night!), as investors ditch tech stocks after more than $3.2tn was wiped off the US stock market yesterday. Today, Japan’s Nikkei stock index has slumped by almost 6% – its worst drop since April 7 2025 during the ‘liberation day’ tariff panic. South Korea’s KOSPI is down 6.7%, and Taiwan’s TAIEX has dropped by 4.5% in a broad rout. Christopher Forbes, head of Asia and Middle East at CMC Markets, called the market action “a bit of a disaster”, explaining (via Reuters): “(Clients) were long index, long stocks, and they all got carried out. “All night, all day – we had client margin calls, client complaints, ... because it’s a very emotional thing, right? People are wedded to their positions and views on a stock or outcome and you’re telling them, look, you’ve just lost money. “And it’s not just a slap in terms of valuation. It’s basically a whole policy and six-year structural shift that says we’re now going to pause, we’re now going to cool AI, we’re now going to cool data centres, approvals and equity capital markets.” After months of warnings that AI valuations were too high, and that the bubble might burst, US investors dashed to the exits en masse yesterday. The Nasdaq tech index slumped by 5.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped 1,833.06 points, or 3.44%, and the S&P 500 lost 4.36%. Memory chip makers, who had been profiting from the AI boom, led the fallers – SanDisk slumped 22% and both Micron and AMD lost 17% of their value. Chip giant Nvidia led the fallers on the DJIA, down over 9%. Analysts pointed to policy uncertainty as Democrats are more critical of data centres, which could slow the rollout of AI investment – especially given public opposition to the sector. Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, says it was a “brutal sell-off” as fears about the future of the AI buildout gripped the markets. The tumble in tech stocks that took hold in the immediate aftermath of the US midterm elections resumed as investors contemplated what a Democrat-controlled Congress may mean for tech regulation and the overall AI boom. The regulatory and political risks arise at a time when the proverbial AI trade was already on shakier foundations. Earnings season has been an overall disappointment for the markets, with Magnificent Seven results so far undershooting growth expectations and flashing warning signs that the pace of AI spending is slowing down. So, it could be a ‘tin hats on’ day in the markets. Investors will also be watching the latest US jobs report, for clues into the health of America’s labour market. The agenda 7am GMT: Lloyds house price index 9am GMT: UN’s FAO food price index 1.30pm GMT: US non-farm payrolls jobs report 3pm GMT: University of Michigan’s US consumer confidence report