Tech rout and U.S.-Iran tensions trigger Asian risk-off

Asian markets moved into risk‑off trading as a global technology selloff hit semiconductor stocks and geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran increased. The semiconductor gauge fell about 9% intraday before trimming losses. In U.S. trading on Tuesday the Nasdaq 100 fell about 1.1%, the S&P 500 lost 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% as investors shifted toward defensive blue‑chip names.

Asian indexes opened weaker following the U.S. moves. Japan’s Nikkei fell about 1.9%, South Korea’s KOSPI slid about 5.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined roughly 1.1% and mainland China benchmarks eased. Australia’s ASX 200 was a modest gainer.

Market participants pointed to a rotation out of existing public technology positions ahead of several large private financings and potential initial public offerings. SpaceX is reported to be seeking a large pre‑IPO capital raise, OpenAI has filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO and Anthropic is progressing toward a listing. Some institutional investors rebalanced portfolios to free capital for those transactions.

Geopolitical risk rose after President Donald Trump warned the United States must actively respond to an Iranian attack on an American helicopter. Commodity and safe‑haven markets reacted: West Texas Intermediate crude slipped about 2.8% to near $88.71 a barrel, and spot gold declined about 1.6% to around $4,260 an ounce. The benchmark 10‑year U.S. Treasury yield fell roughly 5 basis points to about 4.52%.

Regional central bank actions influenced flows. Bank Indonesia implemented an unannounced rate increase, and the rupiah gained about 0.8% to near 17,990 per U.S. dollar. Reports that the Bank of Japan is considering pausing its taper of bond purchases coincided with a drop in the 10‑year Japanese government bond yield to about 2.68%.

Currency moves were mixed: the U.S. dollar index was little changed, the euro traded near $1.1544, the pound around $1.3379, the yen near 160.36 per U.S. dollar and the Australian dollar about $0.7028. Market participants will watch upcoming U.S. core inflation data for May, the Bank of Canada’s rate decision, the weekly U.S. crude inventory report, any updates to SpaceX’s pre‑IPO bookbuilding and further developments between Washington and Tehran.