World markets, Wall Street mostly in decline on latest round tech stock selling

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The technology sector was dragging markets on Wall Street and around the world mostly lower Thursday and oil prices fell despite a flurry of military strikes between the U.S. and Iran.

Futures for the S&P 500 fell 0.2 per cent, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per cent. Futures for the Nasdaq, which is dominated by technology stocks, were down 0.8 per cent.

Chip and memory companies were getting hit the hardest, with Western Digital and SanDisk leading the way down with losses of more than 7 per cent. Micron fell 4.5 per cent and Intel was down 2.4 per cent. It was the second straight day of significant losses for those companies, most of which have seen their stock double and triple in value since the beginning of 2026.

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Despite the heavy investment in artificial intelligence, investors remain concerned that stock prices have shot too high and that the demand may not be sustainable if AI doesn’t deliver as much profit and productivity as expected.

Oil prices meandered between small gains and losses, remaining at elevated levels as the U.S. intensified its strikes against Iran, while Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain.

Brent crude, the international standard, fell 42 cents to US$84.53 a barrel. It was trading near US$72 per barrel in late February before the war began.

Benchmark U.S. crude, which was around US$67 a barrel in February, slipped 22 cents to US$79.38 a barrel.

Later Thursday morning, the U.S. government releases its data on retail sales for June.

Elsewhere, at midday in Europe France’s CAC 40 fell 0.7 per cent, as did Germany’s DAX. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3 per cent.

Selling of AI-related shares also weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan.

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In South Korea, Seoul’s Kospi index sank 6.4 per cent to 6,820.60. An interest rate hike by the Bank of Korea also contributed its tumble. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war.

Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.5 per cent, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8 per cent.

Taiwan’s Taiex ended nearly unchanged. Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC gained 1.2 per cent ahead of its earnings report. After the market closed, TSMC, often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence, announced an additional US$100 billion in investments in U.S. computer chipmaking capacity, along with record earnings in the last quarter and higher revenue growth forecasts.

In Amsterdam, Dutch chip machine maker ASML’s shares rose 0.9 per cent early Thursday following TSMC’s stronger-than-expected results.

In other Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.8 per cent to 66,835.54. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15 per cent. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5 per cent, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.9 per cent.

SoftBank Group shed 6.3 per cent.

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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3 per cent to 25,008.60. Technology giant Alibaba’s Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1 per cent, after China’s cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence.

The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.9 per cent to 3,882.41.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed flat at 8,840.70, while India’s Sensex picked up 0.2 per cent.

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Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott, The Associated Press