Asian Markets Mixed as Tech Stocks Fall; Vietnam's Outlook Uncertain

Asian markets traded mixed on Monday as selling of artificial intelligence-related shares pulled benchmarks in Japan and South Korea lower, though gains for other stocks helped offset those losses. U.S. futures advanced and oil prices gained, though they remained close to the levels they were at before the Iran war began in late February. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated over the weekend as Iran launched fresh drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes, adding to uncertainties clouding the global economic outlook. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1% to 68,704.70, after falling 4.2% on Friday. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company which invests in OpenAI, sank 5.9% following a 12.5% drop on Friday. South Korea’s Kospi lost 2% to 8,246.50. It was down 5.8% on Friday. Samsung Electronics sank 6%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 4.5%. Taiwan’s Taiex, also a beneficiary of the global AI boom thanks to its many tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, gained 1.1% as it recovered some losses from its 3.6% decline on Friday. Japan’s and South Korea’s markets have soared as many of their Big Tech firms were lifted by demand for computer chips and other high-valued components used in artificial intelligence. Recent worries over AI valuations have trimmed some of those gains. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.1% to 23,153.89, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.2% higher to 4,034.08. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 8,798.00. India’s Sensex was nearly unchanged. On Friday, the worries over AI rolled through Wall Street, though shares ended mixed. The S&P500 lost less than 0.1% to 7,354.02 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2% to 25.297.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 51,876.11. Micron Technology’s shares dropped 6.7%, Intel was down 3.4%, Nvidia fell 1.6% and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, fell 2.1%. In other dealings early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.7% to $73.27 a barrel. It sold for about $72 a barrel before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 0.8% to $70.02 a barrel. There’s still plenty of risk facing the oil market over on U.S.-Iran re-escalation, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary Monday, as more questions were raised about the safety of ships in the Strait of Hormuz following attacks on vessels. Oil traders have been “too optimistic” about the timeline for a recovery in Persian Gulf supplies, they said. “This complacency is odd and clearly leaves significant upside risk if the supply recovery proves slow — or if we see significant re-escalation,” the commentary said. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.81 Japanese yen from 161.71 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1386.