Asian stocks slip as Alphabet drops 10% and Samsung loses ground
What's new: Microsoft rose 3% after beating forecasts, while the Fed held rates steady and two officials backed a hike.
Asian shares turned lower Thursday after a split reaction to AI-linked earnings rattled markets. Alphabet sank 10% in after-hours trading, erasing nearly US$400 billion in market value after investors focused on heavy cash burn, while Microsoft gained 3% on stronger-than-expected cash flows. In Asia, Samsung Electronics posted record third-quarter operating profit, up nearly ninefold on demand for AI chips, but its shares still fell more than 4%, pulling the Kospi down 2.6%. MSCI’s broad Asia-Pacific index outside Japan slipped 0.7%. Overnight, the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged, though two policymakers voted for an increase, keeping attention on inflation data and the path to a possible December hike.