Tokyo's Nikkei plunges over 4% as tech stocks lead losses

Tokyo's Nikkei index fell over 4% in morning trading on Thursday, with losses accelerating from an initial 3.5% drop at the market open. The decline follows hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data, which revived expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike and hit technology stocks hardest. Leading losers included AI-related shares: Advantest plunged 11%, Tokyo Electron fell 6.5%, and SoftBank Group dropped nearly 10%. Selling spread across Asia, with Seoul's Kospi down 7.7% and Samsung losing over 9%, erasing roughly 90 billion euros in market value. The Topix index also fell 1.9% at the open.