BANGKOK – Asian markets traded unevenly Wednesday, while oil prices climbed more than 2% after the United States carried out strikes on Iran, saying Tehran had attacked three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. futures showed little movement.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, advanced 2.6% to $76.09 a barrel in early Wednesday trading. U.S. benchmark crude matched that gain, rising 2.6% to $72.25 a barrel. Both contracts had recently retreated to levels last seen before the war with Iran began in late February.
Markets in Greater China moved higher, even as most other regional benchmarks weakened.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 0.3% to 68,077.96, while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.9% to 7,429.13.
South Korea’s benchmark has swung sharply after a powerful rally, briefly moving above the 9,000 mark last month before retreating amid waves of heavy selling in major AI-linked technology names, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung was down 2.9% early Wednesday after losing about 7% in the previous session, while SK Hynix gained 2.4%.
Taiwan’s Taiex edged down 0.2%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 2.4% to 24,057.24, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.5% to 4,011.05.
The AI boom in shares has largely bypassed Chinese markets, but investors appear to be focusing on domestic efforts to build out China’s own AI capacities.
Tech shares led Wednesday’s rally, with Tencent Holdings gaining 3.1% while e-commerce and financial giant Alibaba Group Holding jumped 8.1%. Baidu advanced 4.7%.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7% to 8,738.90, while India’s Sensex also lost 0.7%.
On Tuesday, the roller-coaster ride for AI stocks whipped back down, dragging Wall Street lower.
The S&P 500 fell 0.4% to 7,503.85, though the majority of stocks within the index rose.
The drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry dragged the Nasdaq composite 1.2% lower to 25,818.69, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%, from its record to close at 52,925.15.
Markets are being hit by waves of worries that AI-related share prices have shot too high and that heavy investments in computer chips and data centers might not yield enough productivity and profits to justify the spending.
Advanced Micro Devices sank 6.5% and Intel shed 9.7%. Micron Technology lost 4.7%.
SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, fell 6.8% in its first day of trading after it was included in the Nasdaq 100 index.
Rivian Automotive dropped 18.1% after the electric vehicle company said it’s selling 75 million shares of its stock, a move that dilutes the ownership stakes of earlier shareholders.
In other trading early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.38 Japanese yen from 162.11 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1414.
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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed to this report.
