Australia

Australian shares are set to open lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted another fresh high.

ASX futures were down 0.53% or 43 points as of 8:00am on Thursday, suggesting a lower open.

Shares of Nvidia, Meta Platforms and other highflying technology shares plunged Wednesday, sending the Nasdaq Composite to its worst day in more than a year.

A drop in Magnificent Seven shares helped send the tech-heavy gauge down 2.8%, its biggest one-day decline since December 2022. The S&P 500 fell 1.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, added 0.6%, clinching a fresh high.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 1.6% to US$85.08 a barrel, while gold was flat at US$2,458.39.

The Australian dollar was unchanged at 67.27 US cents, down from its previous close of 67.32.

Asia

Chinese shares closed broadly lower as markets continue to await an official readout from the ongoing Third Plenum, which ends Thursday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.45% lower at 2,962.85 and the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 0.8%. The ChiNext Price Index ended the day flat. Aluminum and oil stocks weighed on the indexes. Aluminum Corp. of China fell 7.2% and Yunnan Aluminum dropped 5.1%. China's state-owned Cnooc and PetroChina slid 4.75% and 3.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, the property sector led gains. China Vanke closed 2.9% higher and Poly Developments & Holdings was up 2.75%.

Hong Kong shares ended higher, with the Hang Seng Index rising 0.1% to 17,739.41 and the Hang Seng Tech Index climbing 0.5%. The gains followed Wall Street's advance overnight as the bull market broadened beyond technology stocks on rising Fed rate-cut expectations, UOB analysts say in a commentary. The benchmark index's top performers included Alibaba Health Information Technology, which added 8.6%, and JD Health International, which was 3.8% higher. Energy stocks led the declines, with PetroChina falling 5.8% and Cnooc shedding 5.2%.

The Nikkei Stock Average closed 0.4% lower at 41,097.69 as falls in electronics makers offset gains in defense and machinery shares. Kawasaki Heavy Industries gained 10% and Komatsu climbed 3.7% while Tokyo Electron dropped 7.5% and Lasertec fell 5.0%. The broader Topix market index was up 0.4% at 2915.21. Investors are focusing on economic data and their policy implications, ahead of the earnings season set to begin next week. The 10-year Japanese government bond yield was up 1 basis point to 1.030%.

India markets were closed Wednesday.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. rose Wednesday, as the FTSE 100 Index increased 0.3% to 8,187.46.

Among large companies, Indivior PLC was the biggest gainer during the session, surging 6.1%, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies PLC surged 5.4%. Burberry Group PLC rounded out the top three movers on Wednesday, as shares gained 4.4%.

Genus PLC posted the largest decline, dropping 11%, followed by shares of Antofagasta PLC, which dropped 6.1%. Shares of Yellow Cake PLC dropped 5.0%.

In other parts of Europe markets closed lower, with the STOXX Europe 600 Index down 0.5% to 514.83, Germany's DAX slipped 0.4% to 18,437.30 and France's CAC 40 fell 0.1% to 7,570.81.

North America

Shares of Nvidia, Meta Platforms and other highflying technology shares plunged Wednesday, sending the Nasdaq Composite to its worst day in more than a year.

A drop in Magnificent Seven shares helped send the tech-heavy gauge down 2.8%, its biggest one-day decline since December 2022. The S&P 500 fell 1.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, added 0.6%, clinching a fresh high.

Wednesday's moves show the big stock-market rotation that has gripped investors for much of the past week is still cresting through markets. It was the first time since 1999 that the blue-chip Dow notched a gain while the S&P 500 fell more than 1%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Now, some investors are grappling with how much further tech giants will fall after a stellar run that has sent the Nasdaq up almost 20% for the year.

"In the context of the last couple of years, it really looks like a blip, rather than something that's exhausted at this point," said Tiffany Wade, senior portfolio manager at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Traders have been rapidly rejiggering their bets on the stock market's winners and losers over the past week. Many have trimmed this year's biggest gainers and piled into beaten-down smaller companies, which are expected to benefit from lower interest rates. An encouraging inflation report has rekindled hopes of a rate cut as soon as September.

Investors also fear that shares of chip makers will face more U.S. trade restrictions regardless of who wins the November presidential election.

On Wednesday, Taiwan's TSMC, the world's biggest contract chip maker, dropped after Donald Trump took aim at the country's chip dominance, saying the American ally should pay for U.S. defense, in a Bloomberg Businessweek interview. The iShares Semiconductor ETF dropped 7.1%, its biggest percentage decrease since March 2020.

Some of the chip stocks that have benefited most from the investor frenzy over artificial intelligence got also knocked. Nvidia shares lost 6.6%, while Qualcomm shed 8.6%.

"Tech is really overstretched," said Don Calcagni, chief investment officer at Mercer Advisors. "This is investors just taking profits off the table."

Meanwhile, investors flocked to corners of the market that seem undervalued. The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value ETF rose for the ninth consecutive session to a record. Shares of energy companies, financials and real-estate companies notched gains.