A tech sell-off drags stocks lower as markets in South Korea and Japan sink

HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares mostly declined, led by sharp drops in Asia, as a sell-off of technology shares deepened after U.S. stocks fell on hotter-than-expected inflation data.U.S. equity futures were mixed.In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.5% to 10,781.63, after the U.K. economy recorded an unexpected growth in August. France's CAC 40 added 0.3% to 7,899.56, and Germany's DAX was down 0.3% to 25,236.07.In Asia, South Korea's benchmark Kospi index lost 7.6% to 5,554.22. It plummeted more than 16% over the past month and was well below the 9,000 mark that it crossed in June at its all-time high driven by optimism over the global artificial intelligence frenzy.Samsung Electronics slid 9.5% and South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix plunged 11.1%.Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 4.9% to 64,425.95. OpenAI investor SoftBank Group lost 9.3%. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron dropped 7.8%, and memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings lost 12.3%.Taiwan's Taiex, which also benefite