Asian shares are mostly higher and Mideast tensions push Brent crude past $96

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Thursday, while the intensifying war with Iran pushed Brent crude past $96 a barrel.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 3.7%, to 7,028.66 as investors’ appetite for stocks related to artificial intelligence revived despite a retreat on Wall Street.

Samsung Electronics gained 3%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 3.4%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 picked up 0.5% to 66,461.62. Technology companies led gains, with stocks in SoftBank Group climbing 3.3%.

The U.S. dollar was trading at 163.05 yen as the Japanese currency wavered near its lowest level in 40 years. Expectations that the gap between U.S. interest rates and Japanese interest rates will widen due to higher inflation in the U.S. have helped to drive the dollar higher against the yen.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.3% to 25,227.06, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.2% to 3,859.69.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.7% to 8,883.00.

Taiwan’s Taiex lost 1% and the Sensex in India fell 0.3%.

U.S. futures declined after U.S. stock indexes barely budged on Wednesday as oil prices rose 3%.

The S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower to 7,498.96, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped less than 0.1%, to 52,218.58.

The Nasdaq composite fell 0.6% to close at 25,690.90 as Alphabet Inc., parent company of Google, sank 1.5% ahead of its earnings report, which arrived after trading ended. It posted stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter, a sign that it’s massive artificial intelligence spending spree is paying off so far. However, its share price fell another 2.9% in after-hours trading.

Tesla’s share price dropped 1.3% on Wednesday and another 4.1% in after-hours trading after the car company run by Elon Musk said its profits fell last quarter as it shoveled more money into research and development, cutting into earnings from a sharp increase in vehicle sales.

Investors are looking for signs that the deluge of dollars going into processors, computer memory and other building blocks of the AI boom will yield enough profits to make the investments worthwhile. Such worries have kept AI stocks at the center of Wall Street’s swings for weeks.

Micron Technology swung between a loss of 3.6% and a gain of 1.2% before finishing with a drop of 1.2%. It had jumped 14.4% in the first two days of this week to reclaim nearly all its 13.3% plunge from the week before. It’s still up 236% for the year so far.

Rising oil prices are weighing on stock prices since they raise costs for most businesses and erode their profits. They also can dent consumer spending.

Early Thursday, the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was up 2.2% at $96.14, its highest level since early June.

It had fallen to less than $72 earlier this month, roughly where it was before the war with Iran. But continued fighting is preventing oil tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz to exit the Persian Gulf. Normally, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes through the narrow strait.

U.S. benchmark crude gained 1.8% to $88.35 a barrel.

The U.S. military announced Wednesday that it was conducting a 12th night of strikes against Iran as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure.

Higher oil prices are threatening a reacceleration of inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates, slowing economies and undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.65% from 4.63% late Tuesday and from just 3.97% before the war with Iran began. It’s already helped bring long-term U.S. mortgage rates to their highest levels in nearly a year.

In other dealings early Thursday, the euro climbed to $1.1433 from $1.1414,

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