Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Fears that the Democratic Party’s blue wave in this week’s midterm elections will sink the AI investment boom are roiling markets, following heavy losses on Wall Street last night. Asia-Pacific markets are a sea of red (unlike the US election map on Tuesday night!), as investors ditch tech stocks after more than $3.2tn was wiped off the US stock market yesterday. Today, Japan’s Nikkei stock index has slumped by almost 6% – its worst drop since April 7 2025 during the ‘liberation day’ tariff panic. South Korea’s KOSPI is down 6.7%, and Taiwan’s TAIEX has dropped by 4.5% in a broad rout. Christopher Forbes, head of Asia and Middle East at CMC Markets, called the market action “a bit of a disaster”, explaining (via Reuters): “(Clients) were long index, long stocks, and they all got carried out. “All night, all day – we had client margin calls, client complaints, ... because it’s a v