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World Shares Mostly Decline, Oil Slips 07/16 04:50
World shares mostly declined Thursday and oil prices slipped despite a
flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran.
HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares mostly declined Thursday and oil prices
slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran.
U.S. futures edged lower, while selling of AI-related shares weighed on
benchmarks in South Korea and Japan.
In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 10,475.27.
France's CAC 40 also fell 0.4%, to 8,348.82. Germany's DAX shed 0.3% to
24,926.60.
In South Korea, Seoul's Kospi index sank 6.4% 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%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8%.
Taiwan's Taiex ended nearly unchanged. Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC gained
1.2% 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 $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% early
Thursday following TSMC's stronger-than-expected results.
In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8% to 66,835.54. Shares of
Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15%. Chipmaking equipment company
Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave
up 5.9%.
SoftBank Group shed 6.3%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3% to 25,008.60.
Technology giant Alibaba's Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1%, 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% to 3,882.41.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed flat at 8,840.70, while India's Sensex picked
up 0.2%.
Oil prices meandered, 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, dropped 0.3% to $84.68 a barrel. It
was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the war began.
Benchmark U.S. crude slipped less than 0.1% to $79.57 per barrel.
On Wednesday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow climbed
0.3%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.6%.
A U.S. report showing inflation slowed in June and strong earnings results
from American investment company BlackRock among other major firms also helped
push the market higher. BlackRock's shares rose 6.6% after it reported
stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit.
In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 162.14 Japanese
yen from 162.19 yen. The euro rose to $1.1467 from $1.1464.
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