Asian stocks mostly decline on a sell-off of chip shares

Asian stocks mostly decline on a sell-off of chip shares 1 of 5 | A currency trader watches monitors 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, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) 2 of 5 | A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) 3 of 5 | A dealer watches computer monitors at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) 4 of 5 | Members of media film near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) 5 of 5 | An electronic board shows Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index, bottom, and exchange rate of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar in Tokyo Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Kenichiro Kojima/Kyodo News via AP) By CHAN HO-HIM Updated 6:54 AM MESZ, July 2, 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) — Asian shares mostly declined Thursday on heavy selling of computer chip stocks, while U.S. futures were little changed after modest losses on Wall Street. Oil prices fell after negotiators from the U.S. and Iran met separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan on Wednesday, as traders eyed developments in achieving a permanent end to the war in Iran. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index sank 5.1% to 7,877.45. with chip-related shares trading lower. Memory chip maker SK Hynix lost 7.7% and Samsung Electronics tumbled 6.4%. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.5% to 69,443.16. Shares of chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron shed 5.6%. Taiwan’s Taiex declined 1.1% as chipmaking giant TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., fell 1.8%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.8% to 23,060.63. Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD’s shares rose 8.7% after it reported its sales rose for a second straight month. The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.9% to 4,075.58. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,710.30. Surging demand for Artificial Intelligence has pushed many AI and tech stocks higher in recent months, with markets in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan reaping big gains. The Kospi and Nikkei 225 have gained about 85% and 34%, respectively, so far this year. Most US stocks rise, but drops for tech pull Wall Street lower 3 MIN READ US stocks rise and trim their losses for June 3 MIN READ US stocks rise and recover some of their losses from a rare losing week 3 MIN READ 12 However, concerns over a potential glut in supply given the massive investments made by Big Tech companies in the U.S. and elsewhere have been clouding investor sentiment. On Wednesday, chip stocks in the U.S. mostly fell. Micron Technology gave up 10.6%, Intel sank 9%, AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, dropped 6.9%, Broadcom lost 2.2% and Nvidia slipped 1.3%. The S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark, fell 0.2% to 7,483.23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1% to 52,305.24, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.7% to 26,040.03. “AI demand may continue to grow but at a slower pace than expected,” economists Megan Fisher and Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics wrote in a note on Thursday. “Firms and investors may be underestimating the barriers to AI adoption.” While transformative technologies can be adopted widely, they may still fall short of generating financial returns soon enough in order to justify the massive scale of investments made by many firms, the economists said. Oil prices fell early Thursday, trading at levels below where they were before the Iran war began in late February. Hopes have risen that crude supplies will improve markedly with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that’s key for the world’s oil transport, even though the number of ships crossing the strait is still limited. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 1% to $70.89 per barrel, lower than the roughly $72 a barrel before the start of the war. Benchmark U.S. crude also fell 1%, to $67.91 per barrel. In other dealings, the U.S. dollar was trading at 162.39 Japanese yen, down from 162.58 yen, after the yen fell to a four-decade low against the dollar on Wednesday. The euro was trading at $1.1387, up from $1.1377. AP Business Writer Stan Choe 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