HONG KONG (AP) — World shares were mostly lower and South Korea’s benchmark dropped more than 5% on Friday after sharp declines for some big artificial intelligence-related stocks in the U.S. U.S. futures were also trading mixed. The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher. In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3% to 10,389.74. Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged at 24,950.24, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.3% to 8,269.98.On Wall Street on Thursday, computer chipmaker Broadcom’s shares sank 12.6% when it gave a forecast that fell short of investors’ expectations, raising concerns over the wider AI and technology sector. U.S. memory chip maker Micron Technology dropped 7.7%, and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings fell 3.8%.The sell-offs led investors in Asia to dump AI-related shares.
South Korea’s Kospi sank 5.5% to 8,160.59. The index has roughly doubled in the past year, lifted by gains for big tech companies like SK Hynix, which lost 9.9%, and Samsung Electronics, which shed 6.4%.Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.3% to 66,588.12, with technology shares leading the decline, even as official data showed that Japan’s real wages rose for the fourth straight month. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron’s shares fell 6.6%.
