Asian Shares Mixed As Tech Selloff Deepens
(RTTNews) – Asian stocks ended mixed in thin trade on Monday, with Japanese markets closed for Marine Day holiday after the Nikkei index slumped 6.4 percent last week in a tech-led rout.
Another spike in crude oil prices and inflation concerns weighed on regional sentiment even as Chinese and Hong Kong markets rose after China’s Moonshot AI released a new artificial intelligence model.
Gold held little changed above $4,000 an ounce in Asian trade as the dollar eased and risk currencies rebounded despite Fed rate hike fears.
Brent crude futures surged toward $90 a barrel, extending last week’s rally as the United States carried out strikes against Iran for the ninth day in a row and Iran retaliated against U.S. assets across the Middle East, posing threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
China’s Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.85 percent to 3,796.28 after state-backed “national team” of funds reportedly bought around $9bn worth of stocks to support the market following a bruising sell-off on Friday.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 2.36 percent to 25,143.05, with tech stocks like Alibaba and Baidu leading the surge.
Seoul stocks nosedived as investors continued to offload stocks linked to artificial intelligence. The Kospi index slumped 4.46 percent to 6,516.27 due to concerns about China’s AI advancements.
Tech heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both fell over 4 percent while LS Electric lost 5.6 percent and Hyosung Heavy Industries plunged 9 percent.
Australian markets gave up early gains to end marginally lower as technology stocks tumbled, offsetting gains in the energy sector amid Strait of Hormuz supply worries.
Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index finished marginally higher at 13,696.03 ahead of the release of Q2 inflation data due on Tuesday.
U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday as Netflix provided disappointing third-quarter guidance and oil prices jumped over 4 percent to their highest in more than a month amid concerns about the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Chinese startup Moonshot AI launched what it claims is the world’s largest open AI model, Kimi K3, raising concerns that the AI spending spree driving this year’s market rally could be at risk.
In economic news, a measure of U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in July, while single-family housing starts and building permits dipped, and industrial output edged up a slightly less-than-expected 0.1 percent month-on-month in June.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 dipped 1 percent and the Dow dipped 0.8 percent.
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