Nikkei closes 6% down as Asia catches the rout

By the close, Japan's Nikkei finished at 57,420.23, down 5.99% and into bear-market territory, while South Korea's Kospi fell 5.41% to 5,092.38 after a worse open. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.06%, Shanghai 1.14% and Australia's ASX 200 0.68%.

Asia's tech-heavy markets opened in freefall and only partly stabilised: SoftBank fell about 11% and memory names such as Kioxia were hit hard, while Samsung and SK Hynix led early double-digit slides in Seoul before the Kospi settled around a 5.4% loss.

The brief's read is that Thursday priced a real crack in the AI narrative — politics plus doubts about returns — and Asia confirmed the trade is global, not a Wall Street quirk. US futures were attempting a mild bounce into Friday, but the next chapter turns on the afternoon's US payrolls report.