HONG KONG (AP) 鈥� Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday, , while the Japanese yen was trading near a 40-year low against the U.S. dollar.
Shares in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan rebounded from earlier losses spurred by selling of technology companies due to concerns over the sustainability of the boom in artificial intelligence.
Tokyo鈥檚 Nikkei 225 was up 0.9% to 70,062.32. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron jumped 3.3%. SoftBank Group, an investment holding company that invests in OpenAI, was up 1.2%.
South Korea鈥檚 Kospi index, which has performed strongly during the global AI frenzy due to growing demand for memory chips from major chipmakers like SK Hynix, gained 1 to 8,476.48.
Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 3.4% and those of SK Hynix rose 0.8% after the two companies and the government jointly for over $500 billion of investments in the country鈥檚 chipmaking and AI.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong鈥檚 Hang Seng shed 0.6% to 22,879.87 and the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.5% to 4,094.40. Taiwan’s Taiex picked up 2.5%.
China reported its slightly picked up pace in June, mainly due to exports and demand generated by expanding use of AI. The survey released by the National Bureau of Statistics said the manufacturing purchasing managers index, or PMI, expanded to 50.3 in June from 50 in May. That鈥檚 better than had been expected.
Australia鈥檚 S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.5% to 8,778.70, while India鈥檚 Sensex was nearly unchanged.
The dollar rose to nearly 162.42 yen early Tuesday in Tokyo, its highest level since late 1986, and was trading at 162.16 yen by late afternoon.
The yen’s prolonged slump against the dollar, largely due to a gap between interest rates in the U.S. and Japan, has spurred speculation that Tokyo might intervene to prop up the currency. However, Japan鈥檚 finance minister said only that the government was ready to 鈥渞espond appropriately whenever necessary.鈥�
Earlier interventions appeared only to slow the dollar’s rise against the yen.
The dollar to yen rate 鈥渉as spiked above 162 as everyone is holding their breath to see when Japanese officials intervene,鈥� Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary. 鈥淚ntervening now would change nothing about the underlying market direction, but would cost dearly. Unless we see an aggressive sell-off in the yen, the Japanese authorities seem willing to remain on the sidelines.鈥�
The euro fell to $1.1409 from $1.1422.
U.S. futures edged higher.
On Monday, Wall Street鈥檚 benchmark S&P 500 added 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.1%.
Intel gained 2.7%, Micron Technology climbed 1.1%, Nvidia rose 1.3% and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, was 3.4% higher.
Oil prices fell modestly early Tuesday as traders monitored developments in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on ending their .
Crude prices have stabilized following after the United States and Iran separately announced this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the United States 鈥渁t any level.鈥�
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.7% to $73.40 a barrel. It was trading near $72 per barrel before the war began to disrupt transport of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
Benchmark U.S. crude declined 0.8% to $70.22 a barrel.
The hope is that an end to the war with Iran will restore full access to the strait, allowing tankers to exit the Persian Gulf and deliver crude to customers worldwide. That would help lower the price of oil, whose jumps because of the war have sent a around the world.
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