HONG KONG — Most Asian stock markets finished lower on Thursday, with oil prices also retreating slightly despite continued military strikes between the United States and Iran.
U.S. futures moved modestly higher during the session.
A wave of selling in artificial intelligence-related stocks dragged down markets in South Korea and Japan. South Korea’s Kospi index suffered the sharpest losses in the region, plunging 6.6% to close at 6,816.70. The Bank of Korea’s decision to raise interest rates — its first such move since 2023 — added to the pressure, as the hike was intended to help fight inflation tied to the ongoing Iran conflict. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix saw its shares collapse 11.2%, while Samsung Electronics dropped 8.2%.
In Taiwan, the Taiex index slipped 0.3% as investors awaited an earnings report from chipmaker TSMC, which is widely viewed as a key indicator of the global semiconductor industry and the broader artificial intelligence boom.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.9%, settling at 66,767.64. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia cratered 13.5%. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron lost 5.2%, and chip testing equipment manufacturer Advantest declined 5.6%. SoftBank Group also fell, shedding 6.4%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood out as a bright spot in the region, rising 1.7% to 25,111.22. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped 4.4% after China’s cyberspace regulator announced Wednesday that it had approved Apple’s Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. A spokesperson for Alibaba confirmed that its Qwen model would be incorporated into Apple Intelligence.
China’s Shanghai Composite index declined 0.9% to 3,921.20. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.2% to 8,820.50, while India’s Sensex posted a modest gain of 0.3%.
Oil prices pulled back in early Thursday trading but remained at elevated levels as the United States stepped up its military strikes against Iran. Iran, in turn, launched missile and drone attacks targeting Kuwait and Bahrain.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell 0.4% to $84.55 per barrel. Before the war began in late February, Brent was trading around $72 per barrel.
U.S. benchmark crude dropped 0.2% to $79.34 per barrel.
ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey noted in a Thursday commentary that “oil prices managed to eke out a third day of gains amid few signs of de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran.” They added that the rising tensions are “having a meaningful impact on vessel flows from the Persian Gulf,” with tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — a vital corridor for global oil shipments — continuing to face pressure.
On Wall Street, Wednesday’s session ended on a positive note. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 7,572.40, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% to close at 52,658.64, and the tech-focused Nasdaq composite climbed 0.6% to 26,269.23.
Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX briefly dipped below its initial public offering price of $135 per share before recovering some of those losses.
Markets were also lifted by a U.S. report showing that inflation eased in June, along with better-than-expected quarterly results from investment firm BlackRock and other major companies. BlackRock’s shares surged 6.6% after the company reported revenue and profit that exceeded analyst expectations.
In currency markets early Thursday, the U.S. dollar slipped to 162.09 Japanese yen from 162.19 yen. The euro edged slightly lower to $1.1467 from $1.1464.
