Tokyo stocks plunge 4% as US inflation fuels rate-hike fears

Tokyo's Nikkei index fell over 4% in Thursday morning trading, driven by hotter-than-expected US inflation data that revived expectations of Federal Reserve rate hikes, with tech stocks hit hardest. The Topix dropped 1.9% at the open, while AI-related shares led losses: Advantest plunged 11%, Tokyo Electron fell 6.5%, and SoftBank Group declined nearly 10%. The selloff spread across Asia, with Seoul's Kospi down 7.7% and Samsung losing over 9%, erasing roughly 90 billion euros in market value.