Asian shares mostly decline with South Korea's Kospi down 6.6%, while oil prices slip

Asian shares mostly declined Thursday, with South Korea's Kospi plunging 6.6% after the Bank of Korea raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 to curb inflation from the Iran war, while selling of AI-related stocks weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan. Oil prices slipped despite ongoing U.S.-Iran strikes, with Brent crude falling 0.4% to $84.55 a barrel. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.7% after China approved Apple Intelligence's AI tool for use in the country, boosting Alibaba shares.

HONG KONG AP — Asian shares were mostly lower Thursday and oil prices slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. futures edged higher. Selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan. An interest rate hike https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-rate-hike-inflation-semiconductor-fad756c430007b891ff275043fea1453 by the Bank of Korea also contributed to a 6.6% tumble for the Kospi, to 6,816.70. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.2%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.2%. Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.3% ahead of the release of an earnings report by Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC, which is often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence. https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence U.S. futures edged higher. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 2.9% to 66,767.64. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia plummeted 13.5%. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 5.2%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.6%. SoftBank Group shed 6.4%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.7% to 25,111.22. Alibaba's https://apnews.com/article/china-alibaba-earnings-artificial-intelligence-e83a76c7188e27f69c9c3d7e4f8d9d83 Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 4.4%, after China's cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.9% to 3,921.20. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% lower, to 8,820.50. India's Sensex climbed 0.3%. Oil prices were lower early Thursday but were still at elevated levels as the U.S. intensified its strikes against Iran https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-15-2026-b7c592f269d822407dd6b5641602bf25 , while Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 0.4% to $84.55 a barrel. It was around $72 per barrel in late February before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude was down 0.2% at $79.34 per barrel. "Oil prices managed to eke out a third day of gains amid few signs of de-escalation between the U.S. and Iran," ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary Thursday. Rising U.S.-Iran tensions are "having a meaningful impact on vessel flows from the Persian Gulf," they said, with tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global oil transportation, still under pressure. On Wednesday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 rose https://apnews.com/article/stock-markets-iran-inflation-oil-3544bd70e0f767404d2de91fd116d68e 0.4% to 7,572.40. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.3% to 52,658.64, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.6% to 26,269.23. SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, slipped below its initial public offering, or IPO, price of $135 a piece https://apnews.com/article/spacex-tesla-elon-musk-ipo-public-offering-6490112997adcbc47235479685a89b72 , before recovering some of its losses.