27 Stock Markets Are Deep in Bear Territory. Wall Street Isn't One of Them

Japan just joined the bear club. The Nikkei 225 dropped 6% on Friday and closed at 57,434.77, which leaves it 21.1% below its June 22 record. That's the line where a correction becomes a bear market: a fall of 20% or more from a peak.

South Korea is hurting far worse. The KOSPI is 46.1% off its June high after sliding below 5,000 on Friday and tripping a 20-minute trading halt. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix carry roughly half the index, so the chip slump hits Seoul harder than most. Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Taiwan and Venezuela round out the group that peaked in 2026.

The count comes from a viral list on X that claimed 42 countries were in bear territory. BeInCrypto ran each index against its record high and found 27 that hold up. Only seven of those 27 set their peak this year — eleven are still stuck below records from 1999 to 2008. Cyprus and Iceland sit more than 75% under highs from 2007, and Greece is nearly 60% below its 1999 peak. Portugal is up about 13% over the past year and still 37% under its March 2000 record.

America is nowhere near that list. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% on Thursday and a key chip index shed more than 12% as investors worried that Democratic midterm wins would slow the AI data center buildout. The Nasdaq closed at 24,315, about 12% below its October 6 record. That's a correction, not a bear market — another 9% drop would get it there.

The S&P 500 is roughly 6% under its record and would need to lose about another 15% to cross over. Jed Ellerbroek, a portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, told Reuters this looks like the capitulation phase for data center capex winners, semiconductors especially. Analysts at Coin Bureau summed it up with two words: “Absolutely wild.”

BeInCrypto flagged some holes in the viral post. Jordan was included at 19.8% off its high — short of the 20% threshold — and 15 other entries couldn't be verified.