Blackout in Asia! Why Asian Market Crashed Today? Trading On KOSPI Halted After 9% Drop; Nikkei 225 Falls 4%

The Asian market recorded one of the most intense single-day selloffs of 2026 on Monday, June 8, starting the week on an extremely bearish note after last week's carnage at Wall Street. All indices in Asia are in a bloodbath, with South Korea's KOSPI index falling the worst. Trading on KOSPI was halted after it triggered a circuit breaker. Other indices—Japan's Nikkei 225, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, China's Shanghai Composite, Taiwan's TAIEX and Australia's ASX/200—also plunged steeply.

The reason is the renewed exchange of missiles between Iran and Israel, which has shattered all hopes of a ceasefire agreement once again, while the global energy crisis continues to send investors into a jittery state.

Also, stronger-than-expected US job reports further strengthened the case of interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve. Also, the US nonfarm payroll data revealed that the US economy added 172,000 jobs in May, more than double the market forecast of 85,000. Moreover, the unemployment rate stood at 4.3% and annual wage growth dipped mildly to 3.4%.

South Korea's KOSPI Index:

The KOSPI index nosedived nearly 8%, triggering a 20-minute trading halt due to the circuit breaker. The selloffs were fueled by sharp declines in tech and semiconductor giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which fell by 5% and 2% respectively, marking their worst single-day performance since March 2020.

"There are strong headwinds for the market as trading begins for the week. The sharp cut of 4.18% in Nasdaq last Friday has rattled global markets with tech dominated South Korea and Taiwan facing big sell-off. The escalation of conflict in West Asia, with Iran firing missiles at Israel in retaliation to Israel's aggression in Lebanon, has hardened crude prices." said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

However, Vijayakumar does not believe that Fed will hike rates anytime soon. He said, " Brent has moved above $96. The jobs data from the US is good, and therefore, the Fed will not cut rates as President Trump wants. The rates are likely to be on hold for some time. "

Semiconductor Stocks Crash Hard:

Apart from Samsung and SK Hynix, many renowned semiconductor stocks in other Asian indices also witnessed an extreme bearish tone. For instance, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, sank by 2.1%, while Hon Hai Precision (Foxconn) dropped by 5.1%. Additionally, Japanese tech behemoths like Softbank Group plummeted by 7.5%, Tokyo Electron tanked by nearly 7% and Advantest slipped by 5%.

This performance followed the US Nasdaq Composite Index's 4.2% plunge on June 5th, marking its worst single-day decline since April 2025 as traders frantically sold chip and tech stocks, fearing that AI is not advancing as fast as estimated.

Last week, on June 5th, Chipmakers were among the hardest hit at Wall Street, including Micron (-13.3%), Nvidia (-6.2%), Marvel (-16.7%), Advanced Micro Devices (-10.9%) and Sandisk (-11.4%).

Apart from this, the Dow Jones fell by 1.35% and the S&P 500 slipped by 2.64%, further adding to bearish sentiment in Asian cues on Monday.

Investors also weighed geopolitical risks after Iran launched several rounds of missiles toward Israel in a warning against further military actions in Lebanon, adding uncertainty as ceasefire efforts remain fragile and peace talks show little progress, as per Trading Economics.

Among other Asian indices, Japan's Nikkei 225 was the second worst performer with over a 4% decline, with the Taiwanese index TAIEX following close with around a 3.6% drop. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down by 1.31%, followed by China's SSE Composite Index, which is lower by 1.3%. The Australian S&P/ASX 200 and Indian benchmarks like Sensex and Nifty tumbled by nearly 1% each.

In the early trade of June 8th, US stock futures have also declined.