On November 21, market risk-off sentiment continued to ferment. Data from Flush (300033) showed that Japanese and South Korean stock markets opened lower and continued to decline, with the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) widening its loss to 4% and the Nikkei 225 index falling over 2%. Specifically, SoftBank Group's stock price fell 11%, marking its largest single-day drop since November 5; Kioxia Holdings Corp.'s stock price once fell by 16%. SK Hynix's stock price fell 9%, and Samsung Electronics' stock price fell 5%.

Furthermore, looking at the U.S. market, on November 20 Eastern Time, the Nasdaq 100 index plummeted nearly 5% from its intraday high, ultimately closing down 2.4%. The pullback from its record high on October 29 expanded to 7.9%. Nvidia became the biggest drag on the Nasdaq 100 index, rising 2.4% in early trading but closing down 3.2%, erasing nearly $400 billion in market value from its intraday high.

The dual positive factors of Nvidia's better-than-expected earnings report and stronger-than-expected U.S. job growth still failed to ease investors' concerns about the sustainability of AI chip spending.

On November 20 Eastern Time, the U.S. Department of Labor released the first nationwide unemployment benefits claims report after the U.S. government resumed data publication following the "shutdown." The data showed that for the week ending November 15, initial jobless claims decreased by 8,000 to 220,000, lower than the expected 227,000. However, the number of continuing U.S. jobless claims slightly increased to 1.974 million, higher than the expected 1.95 million, reaching the highest level since October 2021.

On the same day, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September non-farm payroll report, which was originally due last month. According to the report, U.S. non-farm payroll employment increased by 119,000 in September, more than double the expected 51,000. Simultaneously, however, the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 4.4%, setting a four-year high. The "mixed" data, on one hand, indicates that the job market remains resilient, while on the other hand, the rise in the unemployment rate increased expectations for future interest rate cuts.

Analysis suggests that when positive news cannot drive the market higher, it itself becomes a strong bearish signal, triggering large-scale profit-taking and technical selling in U.S. stocks.