# Disco Corp Drops, Minimax Soars, Japan Tobacco Gains

An episode of [Stock Movers](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1803209456), 23 Oct 2026, 4:44.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/deb345cd-6d73-4a24-a6e3-b2a50138dd86/e4ac4a9e-b465-410c-88fa-b4ec006de4d0/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a55c6f22-aa32-4a58-aebd-b2a50138e2b2

Today's biggest winners and losers in the stock market. On this episode of Stock Movers: - Disco Corp and Resonac lead Japan lower after both Lam Research and Disco flagged capacity across the semiconductor supply chain as an issue. - China is finally bouncing as the government allows LLM exports from DeepSeek and Minimax, and Chinese cars dominate EU sales. - Holding the fort are cheap Japanese defensive plays such as Japan Tobacco and Fast Retailing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts.
[0:05] Speaker 2: Radio. News.
[0:08] Speaker 1: The Stock Movers Report. Your roundup of companies making moves
[0:12] Speaker 1: in the stock market. Harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.
[0:16] Speaker 3: Let's have a look at some of the stocks on
[0:18] Speaker 3: the move today in Asia. I'm Caroline Hepka. Joining us
[0:22] Speaker 3: now is Bloomberg's markets reporter, Anthony Stevens. Anthony, I love
[0:25] Speaker 3: our chats because, you know, you know so much about
[0:28] Speaker 3: AI and this is what everybody is learning, what I'm
[0:30] Speaker 3: trying to absorb. Let's think about how it's affecting markets
[0:33] Speaker 3: then today. This what you call bottleneck trade blowing up
[0:38] Speaker 3: in terms of the capacity constraints around the semiconductor supply
[0:43] Speaker 3: chain market. at the moment that is affecting a number
[0:46] Speaker 3: of stocks in Asia tell me more.
[0:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, we're having a little bit of a bounce here
[0:51] Speaker 2: as you guys come in, but the theme of the
[0:53] Speaker 2: day has been to sell these bottleneck stocks. To recap,
[0:57] Speaker 2: these are stocks that are making stuff that is not
[0:59] Speaker 2: particularly difficult, but are in short supply. But now the
[1:03] Speaker 2: investment pieces have turned against it because people have gone
[1:06] Speaker 2: away from pricing an unlimited AI demand for years towards
[1:11] Speaker 2: pricing in the money that they can get in the
[1:13] Speaker 2: here and now. and they don't want to hear about
[1:15] Speaker 2: capacity constraints. And we saw that in the reaction to
[1:19] Speaker 2: LAM research results, and we see it in Asia with
[1:22] Speaker 2: the reaction to, for example, DISCO results. That stock's down 4%.
[1:26] Speaker 2: It's also taken the rest of the Japan semiconductor manufacturing
[1:30] Speaker 2: ecosystem and kind of passive component system with it. So
[1:33] Speaker 2: Murata is down 3%. Advantest and TDK are down 3%
[1:38] Speaker 2: to 4%. So there's a lot of weakness in that
[1:41] Speaker 2: Japanese space. around hardware and semiconductors.
[1:46] Speaker 3: Okay so that's japan but you say that china's on
[1:49] Speaker 3: fire today the government allowing exports llm exports but also
[1:55] Speaker 3: chinese cars to europe what's the theme here.
[1:59] Speaker 2: So So yesterday, we had a little bit of a
[2:01] Speaker 2: panic attack in Hong Kong around the fact that regulatory
[2:05] Speaker 2: impulse in AI had picked up. First, they warned e-commerce
[2:08] Speaker 2: players to clean up the act and stop having fake goods.
[2:11] Speaker 2: And they also started a licensing regime around exports, high-tech exports,
[2:17] Speaker 2: most notably AI LLMs, but also AI pharmaceutical names. At
[2:23] Speaker 2: the moment, they've looked like they've given licenses to DeepSeq
[2:26] Speaker 2: and Minimax, but and said that, in principle, they're not
[2:29] Speaker 2: looking to restrict LLM access at all. They just want
[2:33] Speaker 2: companies to apply for these licenses. And Minimax has already
[2:37] Speaker 2: got that license. That stock's up 12.5% to lead the space.
[2:41] Speaker 2: But you're also seeing a bit of a short-covering dynamic.
[2:44] Speaker 2: Remember that Hong Kong has been falling for a very
[2:47] Speaker 2: long time. It's a consensus shot against the longs in
[2:50] Speaker 2: Taiwan and Korea. So as people lose money in American AI,
[2:53] Speaker 2: they have to cover their Chinese AI shorts. So we're
[2:56] Speaker 2: seeing besides the gains in Minimax, Z.AI is up around 4%,
[3:01] Speaker 2: BYD and Xiaomi are another two parts of the Chinese
[3:04] Speaker 2: index that are strong because of strong sales, EV sales
[3:08] Speaker 2: where you are. Their sales in Europe were fantastic. BYD
[3:11] Speaker 2: sales were up 90%.
[3:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, falling over BYD cars in London in a way that,
[3:17] Speaker 3: you know, you've never seen them before, to be honest.
[3:21] Speaker 3: Now they're on lots of roads. Fascinating. Look, in terms
[3:24] Speaker 3: of defensive plays, you've got Japan here at the centre
[3:29] Speaker 3: of that.
[3:31] Speaker 2: Lots of Japanese defensive players are rallying here as that
[3:34] Speaker 2: hardware trade unwinds. So the Nikkei isn't actually that bad,
[3:38] Speaker 2: down 53 basis points. And a lot of that is
[3:40] Speaker 2: because of this domestic consumption plays making up for the
[3:43] Speaker 2: technology selling. People don't want to take money out of Japan.
[3:47] Speaker 2: They just want to rebalance it. So foreigners have put
[3:49] Speaker 2: in almost $ 100 billion into Japan over the last 12 months,
[3:53] Speaker 2: and that money is just sloshing around. So for the moment,
[3:55] Speaker 2: we have fast retailing up 2%, Japan Tobacco up 2%,
[4:00] Speaker 2: Kirin Beer is up 2%, the people that make Muji
[4:03] Speaker 2: up 2%, and you have Japan and Kirin Holdings, which
[4:08] Speaker 2: makes beer up 1%. So, you know, it's the making
[4:10] Speaker 2: of a cheap Tokyo holiday, but it's probably not enough
[4:14] Speaker 2: to keep the Nikkei going. But for now, these kind
[4:17] Speaker 2: of names are holding the line.
[4:19] Speaker 1: The Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
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