World markets are mixed while Korean shares slump despite an AI-led
rebound on Wall St
[July 07, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Tuesday
following a rebound for AI stocks that lifted benchmarks on Wall Street.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX shed 0.5% to 25,695.64, while
the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.3% to 8,507.95. Britain's FTSE 100
advanced 0.4% to 10,695.02.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1% and that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average edged 0.2% higher.
Asian shares markets retreated, with South Korea's Kospi closing 4.9%
lower at 7,656.31 after dropping as much as 8% earlier in the day.
Shares in computer chipmaker Samsung Electronics slumped 7.7% even after
it announced its operating income surged 19-fold to 89.4 trillion won
($58.7 billion) in the last quarter, while its revenue more than
doubled. SK Hynix lost 6.7%.
Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at the South Korean securities firm Mirae
Asset, attributed Samsung's decline to foreign investors who were
selling to lock in recent gains and rebalancing their portfolios.
AI stocks have been gyrating on fears their prices have shot too high,
raising questions about whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips
and data centers can possibly create enough gains in productivity and
profits to make back all the investments.
“The first proper AI stress test may not have arrived with weak demand,
a capex warning, or some sudden crack in the data center story. It may
have arrived with Samsung posting an extraordinary quarter and the stock
falling anyway,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a
commentary.
SK Hynix will further test investors' appetite for AI this week, aiming
to raise $28 billion by selling shares of stock that will trade in the
United States on the Nasdaq. That would make it one of the biggest U.S.
offerings ever, behind SpaceX’s IPO from last month, which raised $75
billion.
The company's stock in Seoul has more than tripled so far this year
because of the AI boom, despite sharp losses in recent weeks.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 2.1% to 68,256.96. Computer chipmaker Tokyo
Electron lost 3.9% and chipmaker Kioxia Holdings shed 11.3%.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.5% to 23,496.98, while the
Shanghai Composite index gave up 1.3% to 3,990.24. Taiwan's Taiex lost
2.3%.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.3% to 8,803.90 and India's
Sensex shed 0.1%.
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Currency traders watch monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room
of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, July
7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7%,
pulling to within 1% of its all-time high, even though the majority
of stocks within the index fell.
The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligence technology
industry sent the Nasdaq composite 1.1% higher. The Dow industrials
rose 0.3% to a record.
Broadcom was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. It
rose 3.7% after announcing long-term agreements to provide silicon
products to Apple. It was coming off two straight losses of more
than 2% on Wednesday and Thursday at the end of last week, before
Friday’s holiday in advance of the Fourth of July.
SpaceX erased an early gain to fall 1% in the last day of trading
before it’s scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest
non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds
like the QQQ exchange-traded fund, which mimic the index, to buy
SpaceX themselves.
In the oil market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the
international standard, rose 87 cents to $72.86 a barrel. That’s
close to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked
Iran in late February, sending prices spiking.
The stability of supplies remains uncertain. A tanker traveling off
the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz caught on fire early
Tuesday morning after being struck by a projectile, the British
military said.
The attack was the latest targeting a vessel moving through the
narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of all oil
and natural gas traded once passed in peacetime. Iranian state
television said the liquefied natural gas tanker came under attack
after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim the assault.
U.S. benchmark crude added 69 cents to $69.24 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.93 Japanese yen
from 162.09 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1426 from $1.1442.
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