Stock markets: Markets react to Democratic victory – Nikkei crashes, US futures fall

Tokyo, New York. The Democrats' surprisingly great success in the US midterm elections triggered significant market reactions in Asia. In the USA, the futures of all major indices fell - but the losses narrowed significantly as soon as it became clear that the Democrats would control both chambers of Congress in the future. According to the projections, they will have the majority in the House of Representatives again in the future, and a majority in the Senate is also considered a given.

In Japan, where investors reacted live to the first projections in early trading, the leading Nikkei index slipped by up to 4.7 percent, but reduced the losses to less than 2.5 percent after the announcement of the comprehensive Democratic victory. In Korea, the Kospi index fell by 3.8 percent, but later almost completely made up for the losses.

A public holiday on Tuesday was also responsible for the strong rash in Japan. The market therefore made up for the sharp price loss of semiconductor and AI stocks on Monday. The Tokyo Stock Exchange initially opened slightly in positive territory on Wednesday morning due to unexpectedly good balance sheet figures from the US chip company AMD. After that, however, things fell steeply – driven by a renewed loss of trust in artificial intelligence (AI).