Nikkei breaks below 60,000 for first time in 5½ months as US midterm results rattle markets

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index plunged Friday, breaking below the 60,000 mark for the first time in about five and a half months, as the Democratic Party's landslide victory in the US midterm elections stoked fears of a slowdown in American AI infrastructure investment. The selloff spread across AI and semiconductor stocks on the Tokyo exchange.

It was the Nikkei's fifth consecutive session of losses.

Shortly after the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened, the index's decline briefly exceeded 3,000 points. As of 9:24 a.m., the Nikkei was down more than 6.4 percent from Thursday's closing level, hovering around the 57,100 range.

The Democratic Party's decisive midterm win amplified concerns that US investment in AI infrastructure will slow, triggering a broad global selloff in semiconductor and AI-related shares.

In Tokyo, selling pressure concentrated on AI and semiconductor names, with Tokyo Electron and Advantest among the hardest hit.

The Nikkei had crossed the 60,000 mark on a closing basis for the first time in history in April, propelled by buying in semiconductor heavyweights such as Kioxia, along with power infrastructure and physical AI stocks — a milestone widely seen as signaling the end of Japan's "lost 30 years."