U.S. stock futures and Asian markets declined broadly on Friday, tracking losses on Wall Street as technology stocks once again dragged down major indices. Bitcoin fell to nearly half its all-time high, erasing all gains made since U.S. President Donald Trump's re-election victory. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5% to 54,073.52, recouping losses from earlier in the week, led by gains in technology shares. SoftBank Group advanced 1.9%, while chipmaker Tokyo Electron gained 3%. Japan is set to hold a general election for its lower house on Sunday, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi anticipating a stronger public mandate for her policies. South Korea's KOSPI index fell 1.7% to 5,076.69, weighed down by technology stocks. The country's largest listed company, Samsung Electronics, declined 0.9%, and chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 0.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index decreased 1.2% to 26,569.14, while the Shanghai Composite was largely flat at 4,075.37. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 1.6% to 8,745.60. Taiwan's Weighted Index edged down 0.2%. Amid a week of selling in tech stocks, enthusiasm cooled in the market for Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency. It fell approximately 9% in early Friday trading to just under $65,000. This followed a sharp drop of over 12% on Thursday, which pushed its price below $64,000, a significant retreat from its historic peak above $124,000 in October. S&P 500 futures declined 0.3%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.2%. On Thursday, the S&P 500 dropped 1.2% to 6,798.40, marking its sixth decline in seven trading sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2% to 48,908.72, and the Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 1.6% to 22,540.59. Technology stocks were the hardest hit, as concerns persist about whether massive artificial intelligence investments by major tech firms will yield returns. Despite reporting quarterly revenue that exceeded expectations, chipmaker Qualcomm saw its shares slump 8.5%. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, fell 0.5% as investors focused on its substantial AI spending. Amazon declined 11% in after-hours trading Thursday after the company announced plans to increase its capital expenditure by over 50% to $2 trillion, with a focus on artificial intelligence and other areas. The launch of a new AI tool by U.S. startup Anthropic also intensified the sell-off in Wall Street software stocks this week. The tool's high level of intelligence suggests that many traditional software development services and products could face disruption or replacement. After months of gains, prices for gold and silver experienced heightened volatility this week. Factors such as escalating geopolitical tensions drove investors toward safe-haven assets. The price of gold fell 1% on Friday to $4,843.70 per ounce, after nearing $5,600 per ounce last week. After rising earlier in the week, the price of silver fell 6.6% on Friday to $71.63 per ounce. Last week, silver prices had dropped over 31%. In other early Friday trading, the U.S. benchmark crude oil price rose 35 cents to $63.64 per barrel. The international benchmark Brent crude increased 36 cents to $67.91 per barrel. The U.S. dollar fell against the Japanese yen, moving from 157.03 yen to 156.74 yen. The euro strengthened against the dollar, rising from $1.1777 to $1.1789.
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