The Japan Times - Tech names drag down world stocks, oil dips on supply hopes

The rout that began on US markets Monday took a heavy toll in Asia, with South Korea's Kospi slumping 10 percent on heavy selling of SK hynix and Samsung.

A plunge in Elon Musk's rocket and AI group SpaceX rattled investor confidence in the lofty tech valuations, wiping billions of dollars off its market value since its record-busting IPO earlier this month.

The stock pulled back into positive territory Tuesday, but US chip companies such as AMD, Nvidia and Broadcom again lost ground.

SpaceX "jumping on the bond train to fund excessive AI and infrastructure spending revives earlier concerns that Big Tech may be spending too much on AI infrastructure and increasingly financing that spending through debt", said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote bank.

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7 percent at 51,356.35 but within half an hour had largely pulled back the session deficit.

The broad-based S&P 500 and the tech-rich Nasdaq were down more than one percent, while major European indices were also in the red two hours out from the close.

Share prices of South Korean chip giants SK hynix and Samsung tumbled more than 12 percent to drag the Kospi index down 10 percent, having finished Monday at a record high.

"When you have markets that go up in a straight line... they tend to experience sharp moves in the opposite direction at unpredictable times," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

"This is what happens when markets get stretched."

Tokyo also took a beating, shedding 3.6 percent, with tech investment titan SoftBank down more than 10 percent, Tokyo Electron 6.2 percent lower and Advantest off more than two percent.

Investors were also keeping an eye on the yen as it came close to a 40-year low against the dollar, making exports including oil more expensive for Japan.

Oil prices slipped, adding to recent falls as more tankers return to the Strait of Hormuz following a US-Iran deal aimed at ending the Middle East war.

A temporary suspension of US sanctions against Iran during their negotiations also raised hopes that more oil would be hitting the market soon.

Brent North Sea Crude was down another 1.2 percent at $76.97 a barrel around 1400 GMT and West Texas Intermediate dropped similarly to $73.00, those figures barely ten percent above what they had been before the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Earlier in the conflict they had soared past the $110 mark.

- Key figures around 1350 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.1 percent at 51,680.52 points

New York - S&P 500: DOWN 1.0 percent at 7,396.09

New York - Nasdaq: DOWN 1.6 percent at 25,742.56

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 10,419.18 points

Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 8,347.36

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 1.0 percent at 24,880.68

Seoul - Kospi: DOWN 10.0 percent at 8,203.84 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 3.6 percent at 69,788.38 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.8 percent at 23,336.28 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 1.4 percent at 4,106.25 (close)

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.2 percent at $76.97 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.2 percent at $73.00 a barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1397 from $1.1425 on Monday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3217 from $1.3244

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 161.49 yen from 161.66 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.23 pence from 86.23 pence

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H.Takahashi--JT