HONG KONG (AP) 鈥� Asian markets were mixed on Monday and U.S. futures advanced after stocks on Wall Street steadied with only modest losses last week.
Benchmarks in Japan and South Korea recovered most of their earlier losses in a day weighed on by more selling of shares.
Oil prices rose after tensions between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend as Iran launched fresh drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes, adding to uncertainties clouding the global economic outlook.
In Asia, South Korea鈥檚 Kospi ended 0.2% lower to 8,394.65, narrowing a sharper decline earlier in the day after the country s for investments of more than $500 billion in a computer chip manufacturing hub in the country’s southwestern region. Samsung Electronics sank 4.8%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix fell 1.7%.
Tokyo鈥檚 Nikkei 225 closed 0.2% higher at 69,468.11, reversing earlier losses. SoftBank Group, the multinational investment holding company which invests in OpenAI, sank 5.3% following a 12.5% drop on Friday.
Taiwan鈥檚 Taiex, also a beneficiary of the global AI boom thanks to its many tech companies including chipmaker TSMC, gained 1% after falling 3.6% on Friday.
Japan鈥檚 and South Korea鈥檚 markets have soared as many of their Big Tech firms were lifted by demand for computer chips and other high-valued components used in artificial intelligence. Recent worries over AI valuations have trimmed some of those gains.
Hong Kong鈥檚 Hang Seng gained 1.8% to 23,088.51, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2% to 4,073.90. Australia鈥檚 S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7% to 8,823.40.
India鈥檚 Sensex fell 0.6%.
On Friday, the worries over AI rolled through Wall Street, though shares ended mixed. The S&P 500 lost less than 0.1% to 7,354.02 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped 0.2% to 25.297.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% to 51,876.11.
Micron Technology鈥檚 shares dropped 6.7%, Intel was down 3.4%, Nvidia fell 1.6% and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, fell 2.1%.
In other dealings early Monday, Brent crude, the international standard, was up 0.6% to $73.24 a barrel. It sold for about $72 a barrel before the war began. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 0.8% to $70.04 a barrel.
There鈥檚 still plenty of risk facing the oil market, ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary Monday, as more questions were raised about the safety of ships in the following .
Oil traders have been 鈥渢oo optimistic鈥� about the timeline for a recovery in supplies, they said.
鈥淭his complacency is odd and clearly leaves significant upside risk if the supply recovery proves slow 鈥� or if we see significant re-escalation,鈥� the commentary said.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 161.81 Japanese yen from 161.71 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1406, up from $1.1385.
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