World shares are mixed as tech stocks in Japan and South Korea extend losses

HONG KONG — World shares 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 declines 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 Tehran 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 early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent to 10,487.85. Germany’s DAX edged 0.1 per cent higher to 24,694.28. France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.4 per cent to 8,349.65.

The future for the S&P 500 surged 0.7 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent.

In Asia, South Korea’s Kospi ended 0.2 per cent lower at 8,394.65, narrowing a sharper decline earlier in the day after the country announced plans for investments of more than US$500 billion in a computer chip manufacturing hub in the country’s southwestern region by Samsung and SK Hynix. Samsung Electronics sank 4.8 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 1.7 per cent.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.2 per cent higher at 69,468.11, reversing earlier losses. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company which invests in OpenAI, sank 5.3 per cent following a 12.5 per cent drop on Friday.

Taiwan’s Taiex, also a beneficiary of the global AI boom thanks to its many tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, gained one per cent after falling 3.6 per cent 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 1.6 per cent to 23,026.68, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2 per cent to 4,073.90. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 per cent to 8,823.40.

India’s Sensex fell 0.5 per cent.

On Friday, the worries over AI rolled through Wall Street, though shares ended mixed. The S&P 500 lost less than 0.1 per cent and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2 per cent. The Dow fell 0.1 per cent.

Micron Technology’s shares dropped 6.7 per cent, Intel was down 3.4 per cent, Nvidia fell 1.6 per cent and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, fell 2.1 per cent.

In other dealings early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.9 per cent to $73.25 a barrel. It sold for about $72 a barrel before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 1.2 per cent to $70.06 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 161.90 Japanese yen from 161.71 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1399, up from $1.1385.

Chan Ho-him, The Associated Press