Stock markets tumbled on Friday, pulled lower by the biggest technology shares in Asia as investors continue to wrestle with whether the boom in artificial intelligence spending is all but done or just beginning.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 5.8 percent. The benchmark index has increasingly become a proxy for investor sentiment for artificial intelligence because of the outsized influence of the country’s two chip giants — Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — in dictating the direction of the broader market. Shares of Samsung dropped 5 percent, while SK Hynix fell 8 percent.
It capped a bruising week for the South Korean equities, which had been the world’s best-performing major stock market since the start of last year. The Kospi plunged 10 percent on Monday and has since whipsawed between steep losses and gains — at times reversing direction in the same trading session.
In a research note earlier this week, Morgan Stanley said the Kospi’s strong run has attracted a wave of retail investors, contributing to greater market liquidity but also increased volatility.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell nearly 5 percent, while shares in Taiwan fell 3 percent. Also, stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China were lower.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 pointed to a decline when U.S. markets reopened. Stocks in Europe pulled back. The Stoxx 600, a broad index that tracks the region’s largest companies, fell 0.5 percent.
Oil prices slide.
-
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell 3 percent to about $73 a barrel.
-
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, fell by similar amount, to $70 a barrel.
-
Some crude prices dipped below their prewar levels on Thursday, before reversing to climb sharply later in the day after Iran’s military struck a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, halting shipping traffic through the crucial waterway. Still, oil prices are on track to record their sixth consecutive weekly decline.
Gasoline prices retreat.
-
Gas prices fell again on Friday, sliding two cents to a national average of $3.90 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. Gasoline prices have risen more than 30 percent since the war began.
-
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
-
The average price of diesel fell to $4.93 on Thursday, up 31 percent since the start of the war.
The post Stocks Tumble as A.I. Uncertainty Jolts Tech Shares appeared first on New York Times.
