Hong Kong, Aug 27: Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday following modest losses on Wall Street, while oil prices declined.
US futures were trading higher after Nvidia’s latest quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations as demand for its advanced artificial intelligence chips surged.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2 per cent to 66,162.72. Multinational investment holding firm SoftBank Group, which invests in OpenAI, gained 0.1 per cent.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.5 per cent to 6,909.81. Shares of market heavyweight Samsung Electronics were 2 per cent higher.
Japan’s and South Korea’s stock markets have been among the biggest beneficiaries from the global AI frenzy, alongside Taiwan’s market. Its benchmark Taiex index added 0.5 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent to 25,548.83. The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.6 per cent to 3,935.99.
China reported that growth in industrial profits slowed in July to 11.2 per cent, down from 15.1 per cent in June.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.9 per cent lower at 9,041.70.
India’s Sensex edged down 0.1 per cent.
On Wednesday, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 fell less than 0.1 per cent but was still near its record high levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 per cent, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite dipped 0.1 per cent.
Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable companies, reported after markets closed Wednesday that its revenue for the May-July quarter more than doubled from the year before.
Its earnings results are widely seen as a bellwether for the broader AI and chips industry, and big investments by tech giants in AI have sparked concerns among many investors over an AI bubble. The worry is that the companies may not generate enough profits within an expected timeframe to justify rising costs.
Outside of earnings reports, Meta Platforms added 1.1 per cent after agreeing to pay up to USD 18 billion and to add child-safety measures to Facebook and Instagram to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by states across the country.
Data released Wednesday showed the US economy grew at a 1.5 per cent pace in the April-June period, according to a revised estimate.
The inflation measure the Federal Reserve has historically preferred to use sat at 3.7 per cent last month, the same rate as in June. That is slightly worse than the 3.6 per cent that economists expected, according to FactSet and far above the Fed’s 2 per cent goal.
In other dealings early Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, lost 0.5 per cent to USD 86.49 per barrel. It was trading at around USD 72 a barrel in late February before the war in Iran began.
Benchmark US crude fell 0.5 per cent to USD 81.84 per barrel.
The US dollar rose to 159.38 Japanese yen from 159.31 yen. The euro was trading at USD 1.1655, up from USD 1.1651. (AP)
