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(Bloomberg) — The blistering rally in global equities halted amid rising concern that technology valuations have run too far.

Asian shares fell 0.8%, tracking declines in the US, with technology firms dragging in Japan and China. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. slumped 7% after reports that brokerages have cut the stock’s margin financing ratio to zero, citing high valuations. A gauge of Chinese tech shares in Hong Kong was set for its worst week since early August. Equity-index futures for Europe and the US were flat.

The dollar slipped after a four-day rally took it to the strongest since the beginning of August. A Bloomberg gauge of the currency was set for its best weekly gain since mid-November 2024. Gold extended its losses, while oil held the biggest decline in a week.

Global shares were set for a second decline in three weeks as investors took a pause following a robust rebound from April’s lows, when tariff announcements shook markets. The surge in AI-focused technology companies has fueled a debate over whether prices are running ahead of fundamentals.

“Some areas of the market appear overheated,” said Keith Lerner at Truist Advisory Services Inc. “The extended stretch without a meaningful pullback leaves the market more sensitive to negative surprises.”

Chip stocks in Asia, especially in Japan, had rallied earlier this month after companies such as Hitachi Ltd. and Fujitsu Ltd. formed alliances with OpenAI and Nvidia Corp. South Korean shares rose upon return from a week-long holiday with Samsung Electronics Co. jumping 5.4%.

“China tech is starting the fourth quarter with some profit-taking by investors after a stellar 3Q run, and that’s weighing down the index,” said Marvin Chen, a strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence.

In other corners of the market, Treasuries steadied after falling across the curve Thursday.

The yen headed for its biggest weekly loss in a year even as Japan’s new ruling-party leader Sanae Takaichi — a pro-stimulus lawmaker — said she wasn’t in favor of an excessively weak currency.

Takaichi will meet with her ruling coalition counterpart on Friday afternoon, amid fears of a possible rupturing of the 26-year partnership that has been the bedrock of political stability in Japan.

The Argentine peso rebounded after the US rushed to stabilize the country’s economy, offering $20 billion in financing and carrying out a rare intervention in currency markets after weeks of sharp declines.

Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with US President Donald Trump to review progress on trade talks, signaling renewed efforts by both sides to break the impasse.

What Bloomberg strategists say…

“The growing momentum for the greenback is spurring a fresh squeeze for overstretched dollar bears. There seems to be still plenty of money hanging on to bearish dollar positions in the hope that the ‘sell America’ narrative from early 2025 makes a return. If that’s so then further dollar squeezes are on the cards.”

— Garfield Reynolds, MLIV Asia Team Leader. Click here for the full analysis.

Investors are also focused on the recent strength of the dollar.

The world’s primary reserve currency is around a two-month high, even as the US government shutdown drags on, and traders in Asia and Europe say hedge funds are adding options bets that the rebound versus most major peers will extend into year-end.

“While further dollar upside may be limited without a notable rise in real yields, another leg higher in US Treasury yields could spark broader risk-asset corrections,” wrote Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone Group.

Corporate News:

Samsung Electronics Co. shares jumped, on track to close at an all-time high, riding investor enthusiasm for its potential in artificial intelligence chips and renewed confidence in its conventional memory business. Chinese battery stocks fell as the nation will impose export controls on some lithium batteries, critical materials, and related technology and equipment effective Nov. 8, according to a statement Thursday. Seven & i shares dropped after the company lowered its full-year outlook below analyst expectations, citing weakness in its domestic convenience store business. SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to borrow $5 billion from global banks, refilling its coffers at a time Masayoshi Son is accelerating the Japanese investment firm’s bets on artificial intelligence. Apple Inc. is preparing to expand the roles of some top executives in response to the pending departure of longtime Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 2:03 p.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix fell 2% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.1% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% The Shanghai Composite fell 0.6% Euro Stoxx 50 futures were little changed Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1% The euro was little changed at $1.1573 The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 152.74 per dollar The offshore yuan rose 0.1% to 7.1290 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin was little changed at $121,217 Ether rose 0.1% to $4,344.01 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.13% Japan’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.695% Australia’s 10-year yield advanced two basis points to 4.37% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4% to $61.28 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.2% to $3,969.82 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Kelly Li and Carmeli Argana.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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An escalating dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Sudan has ensnared the commodities trader Vitol and disrupted supplies to one of the world’s busiest marine fuel hubs.

The UAE has refused to accept any cargoes to and from Sudan’s main port since early August amid deteriorating relations with the country’s military government, which accuses Abu Dhabi of meddling in the brutal Sudanese civil war.

The blockade of Port Sudan has prevented Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, from shipping the preferred crude to its refinery in the emirate of Fujairah to be made into the low sulphur fuel used to power tankers.

The crude originates in South Sudan, an independent and landlocked country that sends much of its daily output to Port Sudan and on to Vitol’s terminal for processing.

But that arrangement has been upended by the conflict in Sudan that has pitted Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s military government against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudan has accused the UAE of arming the RSF, led by the warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and fuelling a two-year civil war that is estimated to have killed more than 150,000 people.

The Sudanese government severed diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in May after RSF drones struck Port Sudan, base for the wartime government, an attack that it partly blamed on the wealthy Gulf state.

The UAE energy and infrastructure ministry then issued an August 7 decree that prohibited the handling of any cargoes to or from the Sudanese port, according to notices sent to harbourmasters and shipping clients.

The UAE has strongly denied supporting any of Sudan’s warring parties, and the foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment on why it imposed the blockade.

However, its action came amid an intensifying war of words with Sudan’s armed forces that have aligned with Islamist militias on the battlefield.

South Sudan produces about 149,000 barrels of crude a day, according to the US Energy Information Administration, although a shutdown of the pipeline to Port Sudan had disrupted the trade even before the blockade. 

Much of the crude is taken to Vitol’s Fujairah terminal to be refined into so-called bunker fuel, used to power tankers and other marine vessels.

Facilities in the UAE — close to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — specialise in this type of marine fuel, with Vitol saying its product powers about 1,800 ships in the region a year.

The Vitol refinery, in which the Fujairah government is a minority owner, mainly uses crude shipped from Port Sudan to produce bunker fuel.

The Geneva- and Rotterdam-headquartered company has been the only regular importer of Port Sudan crude into the UAE for at least a year, according to data from analytics company Kpler.

However, no South Sudanese cargoes have arrived in the UAE since July 30, according to the data, requiring a facility with a daily capacity of about 100,000 barrels to operate without its preferred feedstock. 

Other types of crudes can be used to make bunker fuel, although it is more expensive to source cargoes at short notice. The Kpler data showed Vitol was the buyer of about 2mn barrels of the alternative crudes that arrived in the UAE in August. 

Vitol declined to comment on activities at its Fujairah refinery, but denied that the absence of South Sudanese crude had forced it to halt refining. 

The crude that South Sudan’s government relies on for much of its revenues has been redirected to other destinations, according to the Kpler data, notably Malaysia, where Vitol has an alternative bunker fuel refinery.

While no crude from Sudan was offloaded in the UAE in August, just over 100,000 barrels from the country instead arrived in Malaysia. This was a big increase in the monthly average of 27,000 barrels over the past five years.

Additional reporting by Tom Wilson and William Wallis in London, cartography by Steven Bernard