HONG KONG — World shares were mixed Wednesday following a sell-off in big technology stocks from Asia to Wall Street.
U.S. stock futures were also trading mixed, as global investors monitor market movements including in Japan and South Korea, which have seen big gains in recent months on the global AI boom but both fell sharply on Tuesday.
In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 edged down 0.1 per cent to 10,417.97. Germany’s DAX fell 0.8 per cent to 24,687.18, while France’s CAC 40 was 0.2 per cent higher at 8,355.36.
In Asia, South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index was up 3.3 per cent to 8,471.02, recovering from its 10 per cent decline on Tuesday. Shares of memory chipmaker SK Hynix, one of the country’s most valuable stocks, climbed 1 per cent. Samsung Electronics jumped 9.8 per cent, after Tuesday’s 12.3 per cent plummet.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.9 per cent to 69,174.97 after falling 3.6 per cent on Tuesday.
Taiwan’s Taiex, which is also heavily influenced by tech shares, fell 2.2 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.3 per cent higher at 23,412.18. The Shanghai Composite index was up 0.1 per cent to 4,110.81. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2 per cent to 8,808.40.
The declines in Asian markets, including Japan’s, followed Tuesday’s 1.4 per cent drop for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 2.2 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.1 per cent lower.
Big Tech and semiconductor stocks fell in the U.S. On Tuesday, Micron Technology sank 13.2 per cent, while Nvidia lost more than 4.1 per cent.
The big falls in tech shares were an “illustration of rising volatility” in these stocks, said James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics. “This is particularly true in Korea where domestic retail buyers are taking on an increasing role,” he said.
Oil prices fell early Wednesday, as more ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz while U.S.-Iran talks on a permanent end to the Iran war made progress.
“Price movements suggest the market expects a fairly rapid recovery in Persian Gulf oil supplies,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary.
Still, while vessel crossings in the strait increased in recent days, they remained well below prewar levels, they noted.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1.6 per cent to US$75.57 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still elevated compared with the approximately $70 per barrel in late February before the war began.
Benchmark U.S. crude was down 1.8 per cent to $71.92 a barrel.
In the U.S., investors are awaiting a report due Thursday of May’s personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE, which is the preferred inflation gauge by the Federal Reserve.
Some economists predict the Fed may hold key interest rate this year but is unlikely to raise rates. Bond yields have remained higher as inflation concerns grew amid global energy shocks.
In other dealings, the U.S. dollar was trading at 161.74 Japanese yen, up from 161.55 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1347, down from $1.1382.
Chan Ho-him, The Associated Press
