Asian shares are mixed as tech losses offset broader gains on Wall Street

HONG KONG: Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday as markets like South Korea and Taiwan that are heavily weighted toward technology shares declined following a sell-off on Wall Street.

US futures edged lower, and oil prices moved higher.

South Korea's benchmark Kospi fell 2.5 per cent to 5,712.57. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 3.6 per cent and Samsung Electronics declined 2.9 per cent, giving up Monday's gains.

Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng gained 0.3 per cent to 23,469.64.

The Shanghai Composite index retreated 0.7 per cent to 3,614.17. Gains from market-supporting measures announced Monday were short-lived.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2 per cent to 8,871.80. Investors are awaiting a central bank decision on interest rates. The Reserve Bank is expected to hike its benchmark rate for a fifth time this year.

Taiwan's Taiex slid 0.9 per cent.

On Monday, the S&P 500 sank 0.5 per cent after erasing a 1.1 per cent gain earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite fell 1.1 per cent.

The mixed performance for indexes came even though the majority of stocks within the S&P 500 climbed. They benefited from a recent 7.6 per cent drop in the price of a barrel of Brent crude, which closed at USD 104.77. It's the latest yo-yo move for oil prices amid uncertainty about when the war with Iran will end, allowing the global industry to return to normal.

The price for the most actively traded contract in the Brent market has been veering between roughly USD 70 and USD 120 per barrel since just before the war with Iran began, and it's been quick to reverse direction.

So have stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry, which have been shaky for months amid criticism that they surged too high and are in a bubble. Worries are growing that all the hundreds of billions of dollars Big Tech companies are pouring into AI data centres won't yield enough productivity and profit to make the investments worth it.

The latest profit reports from Alphabet and other Big Tech companies also showed how AI may be dragging on their own businesses. Google's parent company burned through more cash during the latest quarter, as measured by something called free cash flow, and it reported slower-than-expected growth in its search business.

Alphabet initially rallied 2.6 per cent on Monday, but it finished with a loss of 0.3 per cent. Nvidia, meanwhile, went from an early gain of 2.6 per cent to a drop of 1.3 per cent following a 4.2 per cent slide on Friday. Such swings have dragged the rest of the market with them.

Outside of AI and tech, the US market did much better, and nearly seven out of every 10 stocks in the S&P 500 index rose.

Monday's ease in oil prices helped lift stocks of companies with big fuel bills. United Airlines flew 4.8 per cent higher, Southwest Airlines climbed 3.6 per cent, and cruise operator Carnival rose 4.2 per cent.

Expectations are high for all kinds of companies to continue to deliver big gains in profits as the US economy keeps chugging along, even with high inflation and interest rates. That helped send the S&P 500 to its record last month.

A report Monday said US manufacturing improved last month by more than economists expected. Perhaps just as importantly, a measure of inflation in the survey by the Institute for Supply Management showed prices were rising at a slower pace.

In other dealings early Tuesday, the price of Brent crude, the international standard, edged 0.1 per cent higher to USD 104.81 a barrel. US benchmark crude oil rose 0.2 per cent to USD 96.68 per barrel.

The US dollar fell to 157.88 Japanese yen from 157.95 yen. The euro was nearly unchanged at USD 1.1188.