Asia markets fall as rotation out of tech continues; investors await Trump address

Asia-Pacific markets tumbled Thursday as investors on Wall Street continued to rotate out of tech and markets look toward an address by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The speech is slated to be delivered Thursday at 10 a.m. Singapore time (Wednesday stateside 9 p.m. ET). Trump is expected to speak about his accomplishments in his first 11 months in office and make the case for his administration’s actions against Venezuela.

On Wednesday, Trump designated the Venezuela government as a ‘terrorist’ regime and ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday that Trump would also discuss his plans to “continue delivering for the American people over the next three years.”

Brent futures climbed 2.95% to trade at $60.66 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate futures are 1.88% at $56.99.

Over in Asia, the Bank of Japan will kick off its two-day meeting, with the central bank expected to raise rates to 0.75% Friday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.53% as it opened, leading losses in Asia, while the Topix fell 0.57%.

South Korea’s Kospi was down 1.36%, and the small-cap Kosdaq was 1.13% lower.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3%.

Shares of Australian energy giant Woodside Energy declined 1.84% after the firm announced that CEO and managing director Meg O’Neill had resigned and accepted the role of CEO at British oil and gas major BP.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 25,304, lower than the HSI’s last close of 25,468.78.

Overnight in the U.S., all three major indexes fell, with the S&P 500 down 1.16%, and the Nasdaq Composite seeing the largest loss of 1.81%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.47%.

Artificial intelligence-related stocks dragged indexes after the Financial Times reported that Oracle’s primary investor, Blue Owl Capital, pulled out from funding one of its data center projects. Shares of the AI stock tumbled 5.4%.

Other stocks tied to the AI trade also fell, including chipmaker Broadcom, AI darling Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices.

—CNBC’s Pia Singh, Sean Conlon and Liz Napolitano contributed to this report.