Oil prices gain and Asian shares are mostly lower as investors sell AI
stocks
[July 30, 2026] By
CHAN HO-HIM
HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices gained Wednesday and Asian shares were
mostly trading lower as South Korea’s Kospi extended its losses after
falling more than 16% over the past two days led by artificial
intelligence-related stocks.
Crude prices remain volatile after the U.S. said early Thursday it had
conducted a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran, responding to an
attack on a U.S. base.
U.S. futures edged higher after losses on Wall Street.
In South Korea, recent drops in its benchmark Kospi, a big beneficiary
of the global boom in AI, have been seen by some analysts as a
reflection of broader doubts about massive investments by technology
giants in expanding AI capacity.
The Kospi was swinging on Thursday and ended 1.2% lower at 5,593.56,
after falling 10.8% on Tuesday and nearly 6% on Wednesday. The benchmark
has fallen more than 38% from its all-time closing high of more than
9,100 in June, though it's still up nearly 30% so far this year.
Samsung Electronics fell 0.7%, even after the South Korean technology
giant reported a record operating profit for the latest quarter, largely
in line with estimates.
Chipmaker SK Hynix lost 5.6% after sinking more than 9% on Wednesday,
when it also reported a record quarterly operating profit, which
ballooned nearly sixfold. That was still lower than what analysts had
expected and disappointed investors dumped its shares.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.7% to 61,867.43, recovering some of
its losses after falling 1.5% a day earlier. Open-AI investor SoftBank
Group fell 2.5%. But computer chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron
climbed 4.5%. Memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings added 2.9%.
Taiwan’s Taiex, which was also lifted by the AI boom, closed 0.3% lower.
Its leading chipmaker TSMC edged up 0.2%.
AI stocks including in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan have faced
volatility over doubts about tech firms' massive spendings on AI
infrastructure and if that can generate sustainable returns, said Chi
Lo, senior market strategist of Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas Asset
Management, in a commentary Thursday.
The recent realization “of China’s AI as a serious competitor to the
current AI market leaders has triggered (and) aggravated these concerns
again,” he said.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.2% to 25,857.11. The Shanghai Composite
index lost 0.7% to 3,801.67.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.8% to 8,967.70.
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A currency trader talks on the phone at the foreign exchange dealing
room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday,
July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
 India’s Sensex was less than 0.1%
higher.
Oil prices were higher after falling earlier Thursday as the U.S.
and Iran resumed exchanging attacks. U.S. President Donald Trump
said the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard,” after it targeted a U.S.
base in Jordan. Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial
waterway for oil transport, remains limited, putting pressure on
global supplies.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $88.60 per
barrel. It was trading around $72 a barrel in late February, before
the war began.
Benchmark U.S. crude was 0.3% higher at $84.70 per barrel.
In the U.S. on Wednesday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.5% to
7,316.15. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.2% to 51.594.14,
and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.7% to 24,442.94.
Several chipmaking big names fell. Nvidia lost 3.6% and AMD, or
Advanced Micro Devices, shed 5.5%. Broadcom declined 2.8%.
The U.S. stocks traded lower also after the Federal Reserve decided
to hold interest rates steady even as some members on the
policymaking committee wanted to raise rates.
The Fed’s chairman, Kevin Warsh, reiterated his commitment to get
inflation back to 2% following years of faster-than-hoped increases
in prices, but he also stuck to his plan of giving financial markets
fewer clues about what the Fed may do with interest rates in the
near future.
With less guidance from the Fed, financial markets may be set for
more volatile trading amid the uncertainty.
“Did the Fed take an explicit change in its policy rate today?”
Warsh asked rhetorically in a news conference following the Fed’s
decision. “No, but I think that’s the beginning of the story.”
In the bond market, the yield of the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at
4.68%, up from 4.61% late Tuesday.
In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 163.60
Japanese yen from 163.41 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1443, down
from $1.1467.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
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