Brent crude climbed above $111 a barrel on Thursday while technology-heavy markets fell across Asia and the United States, as investors reassessed highly valued artificial-intelligence companies and watched rising borrowing costs. According to Decrypt, the moves reflected pressure spreading from AI-linked shares to broader stock indexes and energy-sensitive household costs.
Stocks fall from Seoul to New York
Brent, the global benchmark for oil prices, rose 2.6% to $111.66 a barrel, its highest level in five months. By mid-morning trading in New York, the Nasdaq was down 1.5% and the S&P 500 had declined 0.8%.
Nvidia, the largest US company by market value, fell 2.3%. Because of its substantial weight in the S&P 500, moves in Nvidia can affect index funds held in many retirement accounts. The market decline also came as higher oil prices continued to affect consumers: gasoline prices rose 9.1% in September alone.
The weakness was broader in Asia. South Korea’s Kospi fell 3.52% to 5,533.77, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 2.65% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 3.03%. China’s CSI 300, which tracks 300 large companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, entered a bear market, meaning it had fallen at least 20% from a recent peak.
The latest decline followed a 7.57% one-day fall in the Kospi on October 15. That session, described in local coverage as “Black Thursday,” triggered a circuit breaker, an automatic pause in trading intended to limit panic selling. The Kospi remains more than 40% below its June peak.
AI shares and debt concerns
Several companies linked to the AI investment cycle recorded sharper losses. CoreWeave, which borrows to purchase Nvidia chips and rents computing capacity to companies through the cloud, fell 3.8% amid concern about its debt. Meta dropped 5.8% after its profit missed forecasts, while chip-equipment maker Lam Research declined 7.7% after offering a profit outlook slightly below analyst estimates.
Citadel founder Ken Griffin said Tuesday that investors are “almost certainly” in an AI bubble. He compared AI chips with airline seats, arguing that prices can fall sharply if supply exceeds demand. Griffin did not advise investors to sell, but his comments added to scrutiny of a market that had remained strongly optimistic since ChatGPT’s emergence in 2023.
Rates remain a market focus
The 10-year US Treasury yield stood at 5.03%, compared with 3.97% before the Iran war. The Federal Reserve is due to announce its next interest-rate decision on October 28. Markets were pricing in roughly a 15% chance of another rate increase, while a December increase remained widely expected.
Higher interest rates can raise financing costs and reduce the appeal of riskier assets. Investors are also awaiting core personal-consumption expenditures inflation data on October 29 and October payrolls data on November 6.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 11:23-11:24 p.m. on October 22, 2026, showed declines across the listed digital assets:
- Monad (MON): $0.0210251384, down 4.86% over 24 hours and 8.41% over seven days.
- DeXe (DEXE): $1.7145782688, down 4.14% over 24 hours and 3.42% over seven days.
- Meteora (MET): $0.3309514438, down 7.67% over 24 hours and 12.22% over seven days.
- USD.AI (CHIP): $0.0439169116, down 8.39% over 24 hours and 6.88% over seven days.
