Oil prices jump after US strikes on Iran, while shares in Asia are mixed

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday and oil prices surged more than 2% after the U.S. launched strikes on Iran after it said Tehran struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. futures were little changed.

Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 2.6% to $76.09 a barrel early Wednesday, while U.S. benchmark crude also gained 2.6% to $72.25 a barrel. Both had declined recently to the levels they were at before the war with Iran began in late February.

Shares in Greater China rose while other markets were mostly lower.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% to 68,077.96, while the Kospi in South Korea shed 2.9%, to 7,429.13.

The South Korean index has soared and then fallen back, briefly surpassing the 9,000 level last month and then succumbing to bouts of heavy selling of big AI-related tech shares like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung fell 2.9% early Wednesday after dropping about 7% the day before. SK Hynix rose 2.4%.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 0.2%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 2.4% to 24,057.24. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.5% to 4,011.05.

The AI boom in shares has largely bypassed Chinese markets, but investors appear to be focusing on domestic efforts to build out China’s own AI capacities.

Tech shares led Wednesday’s rally, with Tencent Holdings gaining 3.1% while e-commerce and financial giant Alibaba Group Holding jumped 8.1%. Baidu advanced 4.7%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.7% to 8,738.90, while India’s Sensex also lost 0.7%.

On Tuesday, the roller-coaster ride for AI stocks whipped back down, dragging Wall Street lower.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% to 7,503.85, though the majority of stocks within the index rose.

The drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry dragged the Nasdaq composite 1.2% lower to 25,818.69, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%, from its record to close at 52,925.15.

Markets are being hit by waves of worries that AI-related share prices have shot too high and that heavy investments in computer chips and data centers might not yield enough productivity and profits to justify the spending.

Advanced Micro Devices sank 6.5% and Intel shed 9.7%. Micron Technology lost 4.7%.

SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, fell 6.8% in its first day of trading after it was included in the Nasdaq 100 index.

Rivian Automotive dropped 18.1% after the electric vehicle company said it’s selling 75 million shares of its stock, a move that dilutes the ownership stakes of earlier shareholders.

In other trading early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.38 Japanese yen from 162.11 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1414.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Stan Choe contributed to this report.