Asian shares are mostly higher, Mideast tensions push Brent crude past $96

Bangkok, Jul 23 (AP) Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday, while the intensifying war with Iran pushed Brent crude past USD 96 a barrel.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 3.7 per cent, to 7,028.66 as investors’ appetite for stocks related to artificial intelligence revived despite a retreat on Wall Street.

Samsung Electronics gained 3 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 3.4 per cent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 picked up 0.5 per cent to 66,461.62. Technology companies led gains, with stocks in SoftBank Group climbing 3.3 per cent.

The US dollar was trading at 163.05 yen as the Japanese currency wavered near its lowest level in 40 years. Expectations that the gap between US interest rates and Japanese interest rates will widen due to higher

inflation in the US have helped to drive the dollar higher against the yen.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.3 per cent to 25,227.06, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.2 per cent to 3,859.69.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7 per cent to 8,883.00.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1 per cent and the Sensex in India fell 0.3 per cent.

US futures declined after US stock indexes barely budged on Wednesday as oil prices rose 3 per cent.

The S&P 500 edged 0.1 per cent lower to 7,498.96, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped less than 0.1 per cent, to 52,218.58.

The Nasdaq composite fell 0.6 per cent to close at 25,690.90 as Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google, sank 1.5 per cent ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after trading ended. It posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter, a sign that it’s massive artificial intelligence spending spree is paying off so far. However, its share price fell another 2.9 per cent in after-hours trading.

Tesla’s share price dropped 1.3 per cent on Wednesday and another 4.1 per cent in after-hours trading after the car company run by Elon Musk said its profits fell last quarter as it shovelled more money into research and development, cutting into earnings from a sharp increase in vehicle sales.

Investors are looking for signs that the deluge of dollars going into processors, computer memory and other building blocks of the AI boom will yield enough profits to make the investments worthwhile. Such worries have kept AI stocks at the centre of Wall Street’s swings for weeks.

Micron Technology swung between a loss of 3.6 per cent and a gain of 1.2 per cent before finishing with a drop of 1.2 per cent. It had jumped 14.4 per cent in the first two days of this week to reclaim nearly all its 13.3 per cent plunge from the week before. It’s still up 236 per cent for the year so far.

Rising oil prices are weighing on stock prices since they raise costs for most businesses and erode their profits. They also can dent consumer spending.

Early Thursday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was up 2.2 per cent at USD 96.14, its highest level since early June.

It had fallen to less than USD 72 earlier this month, roughly where it was before the war with Iran. But continued fighting is preventing oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Persian Gulf. Normally, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes through the narrow strait.

US benchmark crude gained 1.8 per cent to USD 88.35 a barrel.

The US military announced Wednesday that it was conducting a 12th night of strikes against Iran as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure.

Higher oil prices are threatening a reacceleration of inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, slowing economies and undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.65 per cent from 4.63 per cent late Tuesday and from just 3.97 per cent before the war with Iran began. It’s already helped bring long-term US mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year.

In other dealings early Thursday, the euro climbed to USD 1.1433 from USD 1.1414. (AP) FHK FHK