Nikkei 225 falls almost 5% on CoreWeave, US rate fears

Business Oct 15, 2026

Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped almost 5% on Thursday after worries about cloud-computing provider CoreWeave's finances and talk of higher US interest rates rattled investors.

The Topix index slid too, down 2.5%.

The biggest losers were AI-related stocks: chip equipment makers Advantest and Tokyo Electron saw their shares fall by 13.9% and 7.3%.

Even SoftBank Group dropped 9.4%.

Pharmaceuticals up 3.4%, Sumitomo Pharma 13%

With so much uncertainty, investors shifted to safer options like pharmaceuticals, which actually rose by 3.4%.

Sumitomo Pharma stood out with a strong 13% jump, showing how many people are looking for stability when the market gets this shaky.

Overall, most Nikkei stocks were in the red at the midday break as everyone played it cautiously.