Asian Markets Rise in Unison, While the JCI Falls Alone

Asian stock markets moved higher on Friday (16 October 2026), following gains on Wall Street at the close of trading on Thursday local time.

According to CNBC, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose by more than 1%, while the Topix gained 1.14%.

In South Korea, the Kospi was up 1.22% at the market open, while the small-cap Kosdaq advanced 1.28%. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.83%.

Asian markets gained after all three major Wall Street indices closed in positive territory on Thursday. Investors rotated out of some leading technology shares and into other sectors, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading the rise, surging by more than 500 points, or about 1.1%.

The S&P 500 rose about 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained just 0.1%. The gains ended a three-day losing streak for both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.

However, artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, particularly memory-chip manufacturers, remained under pressure this week. Concerns about competition from China were among the factors weighing on the shares.

Micron Technology shares closed higher on Thursday, but remained on track to fall by more than 9% for the week. Seagate Technology and Western Digital shares were also expected to post weekly losses.

Technology stocks also faced pressure amid investor concerns about the large amounts of debt companies are taking on to finance AI infrastructure. Shares in CoreWeave, a specialist AI cloud-computing provider, were on course to fall by about 15% for the week, despite recovering on Thursday after plunging sharply the previous day.

Meanwhile, AI company Anthropic told investors that its third-quarter revenue reached US$16.8 billion. The disclosure drew the attention of market participants assessing whether AI business growth is strong enough to sustain gains in chipmakers’ share prices.

Nvidia and Broadcom, two major players in the AI chip industry, remained in negative territory for the week. Their performance added to pressure on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.

For the week, the S&P 500 was down nearly 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite had fallen by more than 2%. The Dow Jones, by contrast, was on track to gain about 1% over the same period.

Jeff Richards, managing partner at Notable Capital, said one of the main challenges facing the AI and technology industries over the past six to 12 months had been the limited information available about privately held companies. He made the comments in an interview with CNBC on Thursday local time.

Richards said initial public offerings (IPOs) by AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI could help ease investor concerns. As more information becomes publicly available, including analyst research and companies’ key operating data, market uncertainty is expected to subside.

“Once we get more of the information out there – analyst coverage, detailed information on core metrics – into the market over the course of ’27, I think a lot of those fears will ease,” Richards said.

Outside the technology sector, investors were also monitoring higher-than-expected US inflation, amid rising energy prices following the US-Iran war. Producer prices recorded their largest monthly increase since 2022 in September, while consumer inflation remained well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

The figures add to the challenges facing financial markets, as inflationary pressure could influence the US central bank’s monetary policy. Market participants are now awaiting earnings reports from several companies before Wall Street opens on Friday, including insurer Travelers and bank Citizens Financial.

Indonesia’s Composite Stock Price Index (JCI) plunged at the opening of trading on Friday (16 October 2026). The benchmark index of the Indonesia Stock Exchange opened at 5,393.92, down 469.86 points, or 8.01%, from Thursday’s closing level of 5,863.78.

Trading volume stood at 53.6 million lots, with transactions valued at Rp922.33 billion.

Indonesia’s financial markets are expected to remain under pressure from several negative overseas factors, including the latest announcement from MSCI, rising US inflation and war.