The White House announced unexpectedly on January 14th local time that starting from the 15th, it will impose an additional 25% import tariff on certain imported semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and derivatives. Once this news broke, global stock markets responded immediately.

**US Tech Stocks Retreat Collectively Last Night**

Yesterday, the Nasdaq index fell by 1%, and the S&P 500 also declined by 0.53%. Tech giants generally weakened—American tech companies without a domestic semiconductor industry became victims of this tariff. This tariff policy not only threatens the global semiconductor supply chain but also makes life difficult for tech stocks.

**Chain Reaction in Asia-Pacific Markets**

The Nasdaq China Index surged then pulled back last night, closing down slightly by 0.23%. The Nikkei 225 opened with a sharp drop, fluctuating around a 1% decline in the morning. Korean and Australian markets barely rose, but Hong Kong stocks couldn't withstand the pressure. The Hang Seng Index once surged to a 0.76% gain but then plunged, closing midday down 0.55%. The Hang Seng Tech Index fared even worse, with its midday decline expanding to 1.83%.

**A-shares Also Not Spared, Tech Stocks Hit Hardest**

A-shares performed quite dramatically today. The Shanghai Composite Index briefly turned red in the morning, digesting the recent deleveraging news, with a gain of 0.15%. However, in the afternoon, it plunged along with Hong Kong stocks, closing down 0.6% at 4101 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed midday down 0.44%. Tech stocks, having surged excessively earlier, were hit even harder during this pullback—The ChiNext Index fell 1.02%, and the Sci-Tech Innovation Board 50 Index dropped sharply to 1.86%.

**Trading Volume Significantly Shrinks, but Market Enthusiasm Remains**

Today, major indices showed typical pullback and consolidation patterns. The combined trading volume of the two markets in the morning was 1.87 trillion yuan, down 347.2 billion yuan from yesterday morning. This is actually a normal characteristic of an upward trend—volume increases during rises and decreases during declines, which is called a shakeout.

But don’t be scared by the shrinking volume. Even with this reduction, surpassing 3 trillion yuan in daily turnover is not a problem, indicating that market enthusiasm and investor sentiment are still intact.

**This Pullback Is Actually a Needed Shakeout**

Looking at the rhythm of the Shanghai Composite Index, after 17 consecutive days of gains, it experienced a pullback on Tuesday, followed by a strong rebound on Wednesday. However, in the afternoon, it was suppressed by deleveraging measures and pulled down again. After such a long period of continuous rise, there hasn't been a real meaningful shakeout. The prolonged upward trend means the subsequent pullback will only be more intense.

The market urgently needs a thorough shakeout to clear out overleveraged positions before it can continue to strengthen. This also explains why regulators chose to implement deleveraging at this time—not to suppress the market, but to cool down an overheated rally.

What we need is a long-term, steady "slow bull" market, not a frantic bull with rapid rises and falls. The market logic is simple: shakeouts are to enable longer-term growth.