Rebound in tech shares pushes Asian shares higher, while oil prices fall

Rebound in tech shares pushes Asian shares higher, while oil prices fall 1 of 5 | People walk past a monitor showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) 2 of 5 | A man walks past a monitor showing stock prices of companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae) 3 of 5 | Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 4 of 5 | Currency traders work 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, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 5 of 5 | A currency trader watches 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, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) By ELAINE KURTENBACH Updated 6:53 AM MESZ, June 25, 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 BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mostly higher Thursday in Asia, led by tech-driven gains in Japan and South Korea as major computer chipmakers’ stocks surged following upbeat earnings reports from U.S. giants like Qualcomm and Micron Technology. oil prices fell more than $1, bringing them closer to where they were before the war with Iran started. Qualcomm’s share price surged 12% in afterhours trading after the company announced it had raised its forecast for revenue this year to $40 billion from $22 billion. It also announced a new computer chip for data centers called Dragonfly C1000 CPU that Meta plans to use. Micron Technology’s shares jumped nearly 16% in afterhours trading after it upgraded its forecast and exceeded analysts’ estimates. In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index surged 4.1% to 71,995.59 as traders snapped up shares in technology companies. Chipmaker Tokyo-electron" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="82761" data-entity-type="organization">Tokyo Electron’s shares gained 7.1%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest’s shares soared 13.4%. South Korea’s benchmark, the Kospi, hit a new record, surging 5.9% to 8,968.22. Samsung Electronics’s shares gained 5.4% and SK Hynix leaped 11.6%. US stocks end mixed, weighed down by more losses for tech giants 3 MIN READ AI stock slump raises the question if investors are just taking profits or getting very nervous 4 MIN READ 12 AI companies are barreling toward huge Wall Street debuts. A look at the biggest players 4 MIN READ Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.8% and the Sensex in India was up 0.6%. The Shanghai Composite index picked up 0.4% to 4,125.76, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.4% to 23,090.27. On Wednesday, stocks wavered to a mixed close on Wall Street as losses for several tech giants including Microsoft weighed on the market. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 7,358.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is less weighted with tech stocks, rose 10.4% to 51,848.90. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.4%, to 25,476.64. Many large tech companies have been behind Wall Street’s record-setting run throughout the year, but analysts have warned their valuations may have become stretched. Google’s parent company Alphabet slipped 0.2%. The company is replacing Verizon in the Dow on Monday. Its inclusion in the S&P 500 means more to investors, however, because 401(k) accounts are much more likely to include an S&P 500 index fund than anything tied to the Dow. Alphabet will become the fifth Magnificent 7 tech company to join the Dow. The others are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Nvidia. Oil companies had some of the biggest losses as prices fell while the U.S. and Iran negotiate a possible end to their war. Exxon Mobil fell 2% and Chevron lost 2.6%. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.8% to $73.87 a barrel. It has been trading below $80 in recent days but is still above the roughly $70 per barrel it was trading at in late February before the war began. Early Thursday, Brent was down 1.3% at $72.90, while U.S. benchmark crude lost 1.4% to $69.37. Some of the bigger winners on Wall Street included homebuilders following approval of legislation beneficial to the industry. KB Home surged 16.7% and D.R. Horton jumped 6.7%. The Federal Reserve will get an update on inflation later Thursday, when its preferred measure for prices is released. Economists expect the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, to show that prices rose 4.1% in May. That would be the highest level in three years. The Fed is worried over inflation, which has been rising as tariffs raise costs for many goods. It worsened as the war pushed energy and shipping prices higher and that impact is expected to linger even as oil and gasoline prices fall. In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.75 Japanese yen from 161.79 yen. The euro rose to $1.1368 from $1.1359. AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Matt Ott contributed to this report. ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the AP’s business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto