World shares are lower after South Korea's Kospi hits records, as Trump
wraps up Beijing trip
[May 15, 2026] By
CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG (AP) — World shares retreated Friday and South Korea’s Kospi
index gave up gains after reaching an all-time high, as investors watch
for developments from the Iran war and as U.S. President Donald Trump
wrapped up his summit in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
U.S. futures were down after Wall Street reached fresh records.
In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 traded 1.2% lower at
24,092.41. France's CAC 40 also fell 1.2% to 7,987.27, while Germany's
DAX dropped 1.5% to 24,092.41.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 2% to 61,409.29 after rising briefly earlier in
the day. South Korea’s Kospi lost 6.1% to 7,493.18 on investors'
profit-taking, after crossing the 8,000 mark for the first time and
reaching 8,046.78, in part powered by excitement around the artificial
intelligence boom.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.6% to 25,962.73, while the Shanghai
Composite index fell 1% to 4,135.39.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.1% to 8,630.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex was 1.4% lower while India’s Sensex was up 0.1%.
Trump wrapped up his China visit on Friday after a series of meetings
with Xi that touched on issues including U.S.-China trade, further
economic cooperation and Taiwan. Investors are monitoring trade deal
updates on areas such as American soybeans, beef and airplanes as Xi
warned Trump that differences over Taiwan could lead to clashes and
conflict.
While there is some optimism over U.S.-China relations, some analysts
suggest any deals should be looked at with a sense of caution.
They recalled how a number of the promised projects and investments that
came out of U.S.-China deals from Trump’s last China visit in 2017 did
not end up materializing, as tensions between Washington and Beijing
rose in the following years.
“Headline deals should be looked at with a healthy degree of
skepticism,” wrote Leah Fahy and Julian Evans-Pritchard, China
economists at Capital Economics, in a Friday note.
Trump also said in an interview that China could buy U.S. oil, more than
a year after China effectively stopped buying crude oil from the United
States following Trump’s imposition of hefty trade tariffs last year.
Trump said Xi told him China “would like to be of help” in brokering an
end to the Iran war.
Oil prices climbed more than 3% early Friday, as U.S.-Iran talks on
permanently ending the Iran war stalled, and after a ship anchored off
the United Arab Emirates was seized and another cargo ship near Oman was
attacked.
[to top of second column] |
A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock
Price Index (KOSPI), and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated
Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South
Korea, Friday, May 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
 Brent crude, the international
standard, was 3.2% higher at $109.11 per barrel. It was trading at
around $70 a barrel before the war in Iran started in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude was up 3.7% to $104.94 per barrel.
Global energy flow has remained constrained with the Strait of
Hormuz, crucial for global oil and gas transit, still largely closed
and as the U.S. imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports since last
month. The White House said on Thursday after a bilateral meeting
between Trump and Xi that both sides agreed the Strait of Hormuz
must remain open.
On Thursday, Wall Street shares gained with the benchmark S&P 500
rising 0.8% to 7,501.24 and hitting an all-time high for a second
consecutive day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 0.7% at 50,063.46,
the first time it closed at above the 50,000 level since the Iran
war. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9% to
26,635.22.
Shares of technology giant Cisco Systems jumped 13.4% following
better-than-reported results and after the company said it was
cutting fewer than 4,000 jobs. Nvidia rose 4.4% as investors’ hopes
grew over updates on sales of its advanced H200 chips to Chinese
firms as CEO Jensen Huang visited Beijing with Trump.
In other dealings, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.54 Japanese yen from
158.37 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1622, down from $1.1669.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
