Asian stocks fall, Nikkei down 0.8% as oil eases to $110 before Fed, BOJ week

Asian stock markets mostly fell on Monday, October 26, as technology shares came under renewed selling and investors turned cautious before one of the busiest weeks of the year. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dropped 0.8% to 62,189.65 and Seoul's Kospi lost about 1.5%, while oil prices eased from Friday's war-time high, with Brent crude down about 1.4% at around $110 a barrel.

How Asian markets closed

Market	Level	Change
Nikkei 225 (Tokyo)	62,189.65	−0.8% (−503.51 points)
Kospi (Seoul)	5,469.47	about −1.5%
Taiwan benchmark	—	close to −2%
Hang Seng (Hong Kong)	23,206.82	+0.5%
Shanghai Composite	3,697.52	+0.2%
S&P/ASX 200 (Sydney)	8,809.90	+0.2%

For the Nikkei it was a third losing session in a row and its lowest close since late July. The decline was concentrated in a handful of heavyweight chip stocks: Advantest fell 3.9% and Tokyo Electron 3.7%, and the two alone took more than 400 points off the index. Sumco, Kokusai Electric and Screen Holdings also lost close to 4%. The broader Topix index recovered from early losses, and energy and trading companies rose — oil explorer Inpex gained nearly 5% and trading houses Mitsubishi Corp., Itochu and Toyota Tsusho also advanced. In Seoul, Samsung Electronics fell 1.1% as foreign investors sold ahead of chip earnings. Indian shares also opened lower.

Oil and currencies

Asset	Monday (Asia)	Friday close
Brent crude	about $110.12 (−1.4%)	$116.72
US crude (WTI)	about $101.37 (−1.8%)	$103.27
US dollar	156.94 yen	156.99 yen
Euro	$1.1216	$1.1223

Oil eased after a sharp run-up last week, when Brent touched about $117 on fears of new US and Israeli strikes on Iran, rising attacks on shipping near the Strait of Hormuz and Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. Prices slipped on Monday after Qatari mediators visited Tehran. Brent is still far above the sub-$97 level of early October.

Why investors are nervous

Three worries hang over markets. First, doubts are growing about whether the enormous sums companies are spending on artificial intelligence will pay off, especially as many have borrowed to fund it at high interest rates. Second, government bond yields have been rising around the world on concerns about public debt. Third, inflation remains stubborn: US inflation is well above 3%, and the Federal Reserve raised rates at its last meeting.

On Friday, Wall Street ended lower: the S&P 500 lost 0.5% for a second straight weekly loss, the Dow fell 1.2% and the Nasdaq 0.2%. Market strategist Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management summed up the mood, saying investors "want proof now".

The week ahead

Day	Event
This week	Earnings from Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, plus other AI-linked companies
Wednesday, Oct 28	US Federal Reserve rate decision (early Thursday in Asia) — a hold is widely expected, with some traders betting on a December hike
Oct 29–30	Bank of Japan policy meeting; decision and quarterly Outlook Report on Friday
Late week	US PCE inflation for September, expected around 3.7% a year

Japanese strategists said the central bank meetings were unlikely to bring surprises and that bigger swings could come from technology earnings; some analysts also argued the Nikkei now looks technically oversold and could rebound.

Why it matters

For oil-importing economies such as Japan, India and Pakistan, every dollar off the price of crude eases pressure on fuel bills, inflation and the trade balance. Since July, Pakistan has been reviewing petrol and diesel prices daily instead of every fortnight, so a sustained drop in Brent would reach local pump prices quickly. For investors across Asia, the combination of falling chip shares and uncertainty over the Iran conflict means volatility is likely to stay high until the Fed decision and the Big Tech results are out.