Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Introduction: Global stocks wobble as AI fears grow

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.

A fresh wave of selling hit AI stocks around the world overnight, as investor grow increasingly anxious around the sustainability of AI-fuelled returns.

The Japanese and South Korean stock markets, which have been buoyed up by their exposure to the AI investment boom, fell before recovering some ground to trade broadly flat on the day.

And over in the US, the blue…