HONG KONG (AP) — Asian markets were mixed on Monday. Artificial intelligence related Stocks dragged down benchmarks in Japan and South Korea, but gains in other stocks offset those losses.
U.S. futures rose and oil prices rose, but remained near levels seen before the Iran war began in late February.
Tensions between the US and Iran escalated Last weekend, Iran launched new drone and missile attacks against Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes, adding to the uncertainty clouding the global economic outlook.
Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1% to 68,704.70, after falling 4.2% on Friday. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company that invests in OpenAI, fell 5.9% following Friday’s 12.5% decline.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 2% to 8,246.50. It fell 5.8% on Friday. Samsung Electronics fell 6%, and memory chip maker SK Hynix fell 4.5%.
Taiwan’s Tyex, which is also benefiting from the global AI boom thanks to a number of tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, rose 1.1%, recouping some of its losses from Friday’s 3.6% decline.
Markets in Japan and South Korea soared as demand for computer chips and other expensive components used in artificial intelligence lifted many of the countries’ Big Tech companies. Recent concerns over AI valuations have curtailed some of those gains.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rose 2.1% to 23,153.89, and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.2% to 4,034.08. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,798.00.
India’s Sensex remains almost unchanged.
Stocks ended mixed on Friday as concerns over AI permeated Wall Street. The S&P 500 index fell less than 0.1% to 7,354.02, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.2% to 25.297.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to $51,876.11.
Micron Technology stock fell 6.7%, Intel fell 3.4%, Nvidia fell 1.6%, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell 2.1%.
In other trading early Monday, international standard Brent crude rose 0.7% to $73.27 a barrel. Before the war began, it sold for about $72 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 0.8% to $70.02 a barrel.
ING commodity strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Mantay said in a commentary on Monday that there are still many risks facing the oil market from the rekindling of relations between the US and Iran, raising further questions about the safety of ships in Iran. Strait of Hormuz Continue attack on ships.
Oil traders are ‘too optimistic’ about economic recovery timeline persian gulf They said they had supplies.
“This complacency is bizarre and clearly leaves significant upside risks if supply recovery proves slow or there is a significant re-expansion,” the commentary said.
In currency trading, the dollar rose from 161.71 yen to 161.81 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1386.
