HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday as markets like South Korea and Taiwan that are heavily weighted toward technology shares declined following a sell-off on Wall Street.
U.S. futures edged lower and oil prices moved higher.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi fell 2.5% to 5,712.57. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 3.6% and Samsung Electronics declined 2.9%, giving up Monday's gains.
Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.
In Hong Kong, the
Hang Seng gained 0.3% to 23,469.64.
The Shanghai Composite index retreated 0.7% to 3,614.17. Gains from market supporting measures announced Monday were short-lived.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 8,871.80. Investors are awaiting a central bank decision on interest rates. The Reserve Bank is expected to hike its benchmark rate for a fifth time this year.
Taiwan’s Taiex slid 0.9%.
On Monday, the S&P 500 sank 0.5% after erasing a 1.1% gain earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.1%.
The mixed performance for indexes came even though the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 climbed. They benefited from a recent 7.6% drop in the price of a barrel of Brent crude, which closed at $104.77. It’s the latest yo-yo move for oil prices on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will end, allowing the global industry to return to normal.
The price for the most actively traded contract in the Brent market has been veering between roughly $70 and $120 per barrel since just before the war with Iran began, and it’s been quick to reverse direction.
So have stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry, which have been shaky for months amid criticism that they surged too high and are in a bubble. Worries are growing that all the hundreds of billions of dollars Big Tech companies are pouring into AI data centers won’t yield enough productivity and profit to make the investments worth it.
The latest profit reports from Alphabet and other Big Tech companies also showed how AI may be dragging on their own businesses. Google’s parent company burned through more cash during the latest quarter, as measured by something called free cash flow, and it reported slower-than-expected growth in its search business.
Alphabet initially rallied 2.6% on Monday, but it finished with a loss of 0.3%. Nvidia, meanwhile, went from an early gain of 2.6% to a drop of 1.3% following a 4.2% slide on Friday. Such swings have dragged the rest of the market with them.
Outside of AI and tech, the U.S. market did much better, and nearly seven out of every 10 stocks in the S&P 500 index rose.
Monday’s ease in oil prices helped lift stocks of companies with big fuel bills. United Airlines flew 4.8% higher, Southwest Airlines climbed 3.6% and cruise operator Carnival rose 4.2%.
Expectations are high for all kinds of companies to continue to deliver big gains in profits as the U.S. economy keeps chugging along, even with high inflation and interest rates. That helped send the S&P 500 to its record last month.
A report Monday said U.S. manufacturing improved last month by more than economists expected. Perhaps just as importantly, a measure of inflation in the survey by the Institute for Supply Management showed prices were rising at a slower pace.
In other dealings early Tuesday, the price of Brent crude, the international standard, edged 0.1% higher to $104.81 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 0.2% to $96.68 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 157.88 Japanese yen from 157.95 yen. The euro was nearly unchanged at $1.1188. ___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
