HONG KONG (AP) — Asian markets were mixed on Monday and U.S. futures advanced after stocks on Wall Street steadied with only modest losses last week.
Benchmarks in Japan and South Korea recovered most of their earlier losses in a day weighed on by more selling of artificial intelligence-related shares.
Oil prices rose after tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated over the weekend as Iran launched fresh drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait
in response to new U.S. airstrikes, adding to uncertainties clouding the global economic outlook.
In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.2% lower to 8,394.65, narrowing a sharper decline earlier in the day after the country announced plan s for investments of more than $500 billion in a computer chip manufacturing hub in the country's southwestern region. Samsung Electronics sank 4.8%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 1.7%.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.2% higher at 69,468.11, reversing earlier losses. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company which invests in OpenAI, sank 5.3% following a 12.5% drop on Friday.
Taiwan’s Taiex, also a beneficiary of the global AI boom thanks to its many tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, gained 1% after falling 3.6% on Friday.
Japan’s and South Korea’s markets have soared as many of their Big Tech firms were lifted by demand for computer chips and other high-valued components used in artificial intelligence. Recent worries over AI valuations have trimmed some of those gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.8% to 23,088.51, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2% to 4,073.90. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 8,823.40.
India’s Sensex fell 0.6%.
On Friday, the worries over AI rolled through Wall Street, though shares ended mixed. The S&P 500 lost less than 0.1% to 7,354.02 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2% to 25.297.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 51,876.11.
Micron Technology’s shares dropped 6.7%, Intel was down 3.4%, Nvidia fell 1.6% and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, fell 2.1%.
In other dealings early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.6% to $73.24 a barrel. It sold for about $72 a barrel before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 0.8% to $70.04 a barrel.
There’s still plenty of risk facing the oil market, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary Monday, as more questions were raised about the safety of ships in the Strait of Hormuz following attacks on vessels.
Oil traders have been “too optimistic” about the timeline for a recovery in Persian Gulf supplies, they said.
“This complacency is odd and clearly leaves significant upside risk if the supply recovery proves slow — or if we see significant re-escalation,” the commentary said.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.81 Japanese yen from 161.71 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1406, up from $1.1385.
