Asian stocks declined on Tuesday with South Korea \u200cleading losses after Samsung Electronics\u2019 forecast triggered a reassessment of stretched valuations tied to the AI trade, while oil prices largely stabilised as investors refocused on supply and demand. <\/p>\n
Samsung Electronics, the \u200bworld\u2019s largest memory chipmaker, estimated April-June operating profit at 89.4 trillion won (\u20ac51.22 billion), an eye-popping 19-fold jump and a third straight quarter of record operating profit.<\/p>\n
Still, South Korean shares slumped 8 per cent, triggering circuit breakers as Samsung Electronics lost 9.8 per cent, reflecting concerns over the durability of the AI-driven chip boom.<\/p>\n
The AI jitter rippled across Asian markets, with MSCI\u2019s broadest index of Asia-Pacific \u200bshares outside Japan falling 2.6 per cent and chipmaker-heavy Taiwan down 1.8 per cent. Japan\u2019s Nikkei shed 2.4 per cent.<\/p>\n
The recent sharp rally in AI-related shares has likely been driven by concerns over the economy and inflation, with \u2060worries about the outlook \u2014 including worsening tensions involving Iran \u2014 prompting investors to seek refuge in the sector, said Toru Suehiro, chief economist \u200cat \u200cDaiwa \u200bSecurities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it would be healthier for share prices to move in line with business conditions and the real economy, those conditions do not change that rapidly,\u201d Suehiro said in a note, adding that markets were therefore likely \u2060to remain range-bound. Morgan Stanley said in a note dated \u200bMonday that the recent weakness in US semiconductor stocks is a sign \u200bthat market gains are broadening, with investors likely to turn toward AI \u201chyperscalers\u201d as well as consumer discretionary, transport and biotechnology shares.<\/p>\n
In early European trades, the pan-region \u200cEuro Stoxx 50 futures lost 0.4 per cent, German DAX futures \u200bfell 0.3 per cent and Ftse futures were up almost 0.1 per cent.<\/p>\n
US S&P 500 E-minis dipped 0.3 per cent, Nasdaq 100 E-minis retreated 1.2 per cent and Dow E-minis were down 0.02 per cent.<\/p>\n
Oil \u2060edged higher, but gains were limited after prices hit pre-Iran \u2060war levels on Monday. US crude \u200brose 0.85 per cent to $69.13 a barrel and Brent rose to $72.62 per barrel, up 0.88 per cent on the day. <\/p>\n
US president Donald Trump, who has pressured Europe to increase defence spending and clashed with European leaders over the Iran war and Greenland, will attend a Nato meeting in Turkey beginning on Tuesday. Trump said on Monday the US would either reach a deal with Iran or \u201cfinish the job\u201d, renewing his threat of military action as Tehran projects defiance following the funeral of its slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
In currency markets, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, traded at 100.88, with the euro down 0.03 per cent at $1.1436. The \u200cyen bounced back from the weaker \u2060side of 162 per dollar, near 40-year lows, and was last up 0.17 per cent at 161.79 per dollar. <\/p>\n
Traders remained on watch for intervention amid signs of a possible shift in strategy by Japanese authorities. On Tuesday, Japanese government bond yields fell from multi-decade \u200chighs after a sale of super-long-term debt showed strong demand. The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes rose 1.62 basis points to 4.495 per cent, from 4.479 per cent late on Monday.<\/p>\n
Fed watchers will get \u200banother glimpse into how new chair Kevin Warsh steers the central bank when it releases Federal Open \u200bMarket Committee minutes on Wednesday, the first of his tenure.<\/p>\n
In commodity markets, gold lost 0.91 per cent at $4,125.59 an ounce, trading below a two-week high. Silver fell 2.17 per cent to $60.73 an ounce and copper declined 0.58 per cent to $13,326.00 a ton. – Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asian stocks declined on Tuesday with South Korea \u200cleading losses after Samsung Electronics\u2019 forecast triggered a reassessment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,11829,60,6000,573,80,20966],"class_list":["post-537111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-oil","tag-samsung","tag-technology","tag-trump-presidency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}