Oil prices edge lower, while Asian shares rise, tracking Wall Street gains

Oil prices edge lower, while Asian shares rise, tracking Wall Street gains 1 of 5 | A person walk in front of an electronic stock chart board showing Japan’s Nikkei index at a securities firm Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) 2 of 5 | Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 3 of 5 | Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 4 of 5 | Specialists Dilip Patel works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura) 5 of 5 | Specialist Anthony Matesic works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura) By CHAN HO-HIM Updated 6:45 AM MESZ, September 3, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices slipped Thursday after recent gains, with Brent crude trading near $95 a barrel, while Asian shares advanced. Renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran pushed oil prices sharply higher earlier in the week. U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the U.S. bombing campaign to last “much longer.” Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.4% to $95.26 per barrel. Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.1% to $90.84 a barrel. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 advanced 0.2% to 64,455.83. Among major gainers, OpenAI investor SoftBank Group rose 2.9%, memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings rose 0.6%, and chip equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron gained 0.8%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.4% to 6,656.81. Samsung Electronics was 1.3% higher, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix was up 1.4%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher, to 25,344.80. The Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.4% to 3,958.79. The Taiex in Taiwan rose 0.6%, while India’s Sensex climbed 0.3%. The regional advance followed gains for stocks on Wall Street, where the benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.5% on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.5%. Investors welcomed some encouraging signals about demand for artificial intelligence from two big tech companies, Dell and Palo Alto Networks. The AI boom has been the key driver behind the S&P 500’s gains this year. Wall Street rises as tech stocks climb and oil prices, bond yields hold relatively steady 4 MIN READ 28 Falling oil prices help calm the stock and bond markets 3 MIN READ 59 Wall Street drifts at the start of a week that could swing stocks and bonds 3 MIN READ 59 Dell Technologies surged 15.8% following strong quarterly profits. Among some of the biggest names, Nvidia gained 3.2%, Meta Platforms climbed 2.5%, and Micron Technology rose 2.4%. Other big tech companies tied to the AI boom also rallied. Chipmaker Nvidia, whose big market value tends to give it more influence over the broader market’s direction, rose 3.2%, while computer memory seller Micron Technology gained 2.4%. In the bond market, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury fell to 4.77% from more than 4.81% early Wednesday after a global bond sell-off triggered growing concerns over inflation and the Iran war -caused energy shocks as well as rising U.S. government debt. The U.S. is set to release an employment report for August on Friday. In other dealings early Thursday, the Japanese yen strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar, with the dollar trading at 157.78 yen early Thursday, down from 158.71 yen late Wednesday. The dollar had surged to above 160 yen earlier in the week, raising expectations that regulators might intervene to prevent the yen from falling further. AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed to this report. CHAN HO-HIM Chan writes about business and economy in China for The Associated Press, reporting on key sectors of the world’s second-largest economy from trade and technology to autos. He is based in Hong Kong. mailto