World markets are mixed while Korean shares slump despite an AI-led rebound on Wall St

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BANGKOK — World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Tuesday following a rebound for AI stocks that lifted benchmarks on Wall Street.

In early European trading, Germany’s DAX shed 0.5 per cent to 25,695.64, while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.3 per cent to 8,507.95. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.4 per cent to 10,695.02.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.2 per cent higher.

Asian shares markets retreated, with South Korea’s Kospi closing 4.9 per cent lower at 7,656.31 after dropping as much as 8 per cent earlier in the day. Shares in computer chipmaker Samsung Electronics slumped 7.7 per cent even after it announced its operating income surged 19-fold to 89.4 trillion won (US$58.7 billion) in the last quarter, while its revenue more than doubled. SK Hynix lost 6.7 per cent.

Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at the South Korean securities firm Mirae Asset, attributed Samsung’s decline to foreign investors who were selling to lock in recent gains and rebalancing their portfolios.

AI stocks have been gyrating on fears their prices have shot too high, raising questions about whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers can possibly create enough gains in productivity and profits to make back all the investments.

“The first proper AI stress test may not have arrived with weak demand, a capex warning, or some sudden crack in the data center story. It may have arrived with Samsung posting an extraordinary quarter and the stock falling anyway,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

SK Hynix will further test investors’ appetite for AI this week, aiming to raise $28 billion by selling shares of stock that will trade in the United States on the Nasdaq. That would make it one of the biggest U.S. offerings ever, behind SpaceX’s IPO from last month, which raised $75 billion.

The company’s stock in Seoul has more than tripled so far this year because of the AI boom, despite sharp losses in recent weeks.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 declined 2.1 per cent to 68,256.96. Computer chipmaker Tokyo Electron lost 3.9 per cent and chipmaker Kioxia Holdings shed 11.3 per cent.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.5 per cent to 23,496.98, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.3 per cent to 3,990.24. Taiwan’s Taiex lost 2.3 per cent.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.3 per cent to 8,803.90 and India’s Sensex shed 0.1 per cent.

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 per cent, pulling to within 1 per cent of its all-time high, even though the majority of stocks within the index fell.

The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligence technology industry sent the Nasdaq composite 1.1 per cent higher. The Dow industrials rose 0.3 per cent to a record.

Broadcom was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. It rose 3.7 per cent after announcing long-term agreements to provide silicon products to Apple. It was coming off two straight losses of more than 2 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday at the end of last week, before Friday’s holiday in advance of the Fourth of July.

SpaceX erased an early gain to fall 1 per cent in the last day of trading before it’s scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds like the QQQ exchange-traded fund, which mimic the index, to buy SpaceX themselves.

In the oil market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 87 cents to $72.86 a barrel. That’s close to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, sending prices spiking.

The stability of supplies remains uncertain. A tanker traveling off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz caught on fire early Tuesday morning after being struck by a projectile, the British military said.

The attack was the latest targeting a vessel moving through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault.

U.S. benchmark crude added 69 cents to $69.24 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.93 Japanese yen from 162.09 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1426 from $1.1442.

Elaine Kurtenbach, The Associated Press