BANGKOK – Asian markets traded unevenly Friday, following a modest pullback on Wall Street, as crude oil prices climbed more than 1%.
Pressure on chipmakers and other artificial intelligence-related shares appeared to ease somewhat, though Japan’s Nikkei 225 still slipped 0.3% to 65,500.10.
South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.8% to 6,242.88, while Taiwan’s Taiex shed 0.4%.
Mainland Chinese stocks moved higher, with the Shanghai Composite rising 0.8% to 3,931.54 after data showed China’s exports expanded by about 24% in July. The pace was slightly slower but remained strong, supported by demand for electronics and other high-tech goods. China’s large trade surplus narrowed for the month, while import growth also cooled.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index gained 0.2% to 25,582.34.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was nearly flat, edging down less than 0.1% to 9,265.20.
The mixed trading in Asia followed Thursday’s losses on Wall Street, where rising oil prices and a steady flow of corporate earnings reports weighed on sentiment.
The S&P 500 ended 0.2% lower, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.
The price of Brent crude rose nearly 4% on Thursday as progress toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz, vital to securing stable oil supplies, remained unclear.
Iran has said it is close to a deal with Oman for reopening the strait. U.S. President Donald Trump has also previously said a deal is close, but the conflict has had many starts and stops over the past five months.
Reopening the strait may require a compromise since the Trump administration has ruled out Iran charging fees to ships. But Iran has insisted on some measure of control, saying the strait will not go back to being an international waterway.
As of early Friday, a barrel of Brent, the international standard, was up 1.6% at $83.78. U.S. benchmark crude oil advanced 1.2% to $78.22 per barrel.
A fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas once passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices have surged as high as $113 due to the war and higher prices have added more heat to inflation by raising the price of gasoline and raising costs for shipping.
While markets are still weighed down by worries over the war and over a possible bubble in investments in artificial intelligence, strong overall corporate profits have helped allay concerns on Wall Street about shares being overpriced.
Roughly 85% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results and overall earnings growth for the period is shaping up to be the strongest since 2021.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 1.7% after reporting earnings that came in ahead of what investors were expecting. Molson Coors rose 1.3% after also reporting encouraging financial results.
On the losing end, Honeywell Aerospace fell 23.2% after turning in results that fell well short of forecasts. AppLovin slumped 19.7% after the digital ad company reported mixed financial results for its most recent quarter.
Outside of earnings, SpaceX rose 6.1%. More than 911 million SpaceX shares held by early investors and employees became eligible for sale Thursday as a lockup period for the stock expired. That is more than double the shares that were initially offered to the public for sale during the initial public offering for Elon Musk’s company.
SpaceX jumped as high as $225 a share following its market debut in June, but has since slumped below its initial $135 offering price. The stock is currently trading around $115.
The latest monthly jobs report, for July, will be released Friday.
U.S. employment remains strong, but growth in hiring has been easing. A weekly report on Thursday showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week, though layoffs remain in the historically healthy range of the past few years. Employers pulled back on hiring in June, adding only 57,000 jobs.
In other dealings early Friday, the dollar fell to 158.35 Japanese yen from 158.42 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1524.
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Associated Press Writer Damian J. Troise in New York contributed to this report.
