World shares are mixed, Kospi gains 8.4%, as tech-led rally fades
[May 21, 2026] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
Shares opened lower in Europe on Thursday after a mixed session in Asia,
where a rebound in oil prices eclipsed another broad rally on Wall
Street.
South Korea’s Kospi soared 8.4% to 7,815.59, helped by strong buying of
technology shares such as Samsung Electronics, which gained 8.5% after
its labor union and management reached an agreement late Wednesday that
averted a potentially costly strike. Shares in SK Hynix, a computer
chipmaker partnering with Nvidia, surged 11.2%.
The advance was partly powered by a stronger-than-expected quarterly
report from chipmaker Nvidia, whose profit rocketed more than 200%
higher in the February-April quarter from a year earlier, while revenue
jumped 85%.
Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the boom in
artificial intelligence, thanks to powerful demand for its high-end AI
chips. Its shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday before its earnings report was
released, but they fell 1.3% in afterhours trading after the
announcement.
The Kospi has been breaching records, recently exceeding 8,000 for the
first time.
U.S. futures slipped, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.3%, while
that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.
In early European trading, Germany's DAX gave up 0.3% to 24,669.59,
while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.2% to 8,102.25. Britain's FTSE 100 shed
0.4% to 10,393.56.
In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 jumped 3.1% to 61,684.14
after the government reported that Japan’s exports rose nearly 15% in
April from a year earlier, despite shocks from the Iran war.
Technology-related shares were among the biggest winners, with Tokyo
Electron gaining 5.9% and Advantest up 4.4%.
Taiwan's Taiex, also heavily weighted toward technology shares, gained
3.9% as major chipmaker TSMC's stock gained 3%.
Chinese markets declined, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 1.2% to
25,352.82. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 2% to 4,077.28.
Indonesia's share benchmark dropped 3.3% as the market absorbed the
impact of a government decision to put strategic natural resource
exports such as coal under state control.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 picked up 1.5% to 8,621.70.
Oil prices pushed higher early Thursday, a day after Brent crude had
dropped 5%. Brent, the international standard, gained $1.46 to $106.48
per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added $1.53 to $99.79 per barrel.
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A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea
Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate
between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, left, at the foreign
exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South
Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 Brent remains well above its roughly
$70 level from before the war with Iran. Prices have been yo-yoing
on rising and falling hopes that the United States and Iran can
reach an agreement to allow oil deliveries to fully resume from the
Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks bounced back, with the S&P 500 gaining
1.1% for its first rise in four days. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average added 1.3% and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5%.
Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, as the
yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.67% late Tuesday.
That's a significant move for a market that measures things in
hundredths of a percentage point.
The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4% before
the war with Iran began, along with other government bond yields
around the world, because of worries that the fighting will keep oil
prices high, among other factors
High yields slow economies and weigh on prices for stocks,
cryptocurrencies and all kinds of other investments. Besides driving
up rates for mortgages, they could also curtail companies’ borrowing
to build the artificial-intelligence data centers that have been
supporting the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
With the easing of yields, technology stocks helped lead Wall Street
higher. Advanced Micro Devices jumped 8.1%, while Intel gained 7.4%.
Smaller companies can feel even bigger relief from lower yields than
their bigger rivals because many need to borrow to grow. The Russell
2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 2.6%, more than double
the gain of the S&P 500, which measures the biggest U.S. stocks.
Most big U.S. companies have reported better profits for the start
of 2026 than analysts expected, which has helped stocks run to
records. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits
over the long term.
In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 159.05
Japanese yen from 158.92 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1601 from
$1.1624.
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