Bitcoin falls, Asian shares slip as Wall Street hit by tech stock losses

US futures and Asian shares traded mostly lower on Friday, tracking Wall Street's losses as technology stocks again dragged on markets.

Bitcoin sank to roughly half its record price, giving back all it gained since US President Donald Trump won the White House for his second term.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 0.5 per cent to 54,073.52, recovering from losses earlier this week, with technology-related stocks leading gains. SoftBank Group rose 1.9 per cent, and chipmaker Tokyo Electron rose 3 per cent. Japan will also be holding its general election on Sunday, in which Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expects to win a stronger public mandate for her policies.

South Korea's Kospi lost 1.7 per cent to 5,076.69, weighed down by tech shares. Samsung Electronics, the country's biggest listed company, fell 0.9 per cent. Chipmaker SK Hynix was down 0.6 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.2 per cent to 26,569.14. The Shanghai Composite index was flat at 4,075.37.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.6 per cent to 8,745.60.

Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.2 per cent.

Against the backdrop of the technology sell-off this week, Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, saw dimming enthusiasm and was trading about 9 per cent lower at just under USD 65,000 early Friday, after it briefly sank over 12 per cent to below USD 64,000 on Thursday. That's down from a record of above USD 124,000 in October.

The future for the S&P 500 was 0.3 per cent lower, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 per cent.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2 per cent to 6,798.40, its sixth loss in the seven days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.2 per cent to 48,908.72. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.6 per cent to 22,540.59.

Technology stocks were among the worst hit as concerns persist over whether massive AI investments by many of the Big Tech firms will pay off.

Chipmaker Qualcomm sank 8.5 per cent despite better-than-expected quarterly revenues. Alphabet lost 0.5 per cent as investors were focused on its huge spending on AI.

Amazon fell 11 per cent in after-hours trading Thursday after it announced plans to boost capital spending by more than 50 per cent to USD 200 billion in AI and other areas.

American artificial intelligence startup Anthropic's new AI tools also fueled the sell-off of software stocks on Wall Street this week, as its sophistication means many traditional software development services and products could be disrupted or replaced.

Gold and silver prices have been volatile this week following a months-long rally as investors moved into safe-haven assets, prompted by factors including elevated geopolitical tensions. Gold prices fell 1 per cent on Friday to USD 4,843.70 per ounce, after nearing USD 5,600 last week.

Silver prices dropped 6.6 per cent to USD 71.63 per ounce after rising earlier this week. It lost more than 31 per cent last Friday.

In other dealings early Friday, US benchmark crude oil gained 35 cents to USD 63.64 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 36 cents to USD 67.91 a barrel.

The US dollar fell to 156.74 Japanese yen from 157.03 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1789, up from USD 1.1777.