Asian shares skidded on Thursday as investors rotated out of chipmakers following a stellar quarter, while currency and bond markets braced for US jobs data that could gives hints about the risk of interest rate hikes.Oil prices hit new four-month lows, with Brent crude off 0.8 percent to $71 a barrel, as US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran had gone well in Qatar, and as more oil tankers transited through the Strait of Hormuz.
On Thursday, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei also dropped 1.1 percent, adding to losses from the first day of the quarter.
South Korea’s KOSPI sank 2.7 percent, extending a 2 percent slide from Wednesday. That followed an eye-watering 68 percent surge in the second quarter on soaring AI-related demand for memory chips.
SK Hynix plunged 7.7 percent and Samsung tumbled 6.2 percent. That followed a report that Meta Platforms is building a cloud business to sell excess AI computing capacity, which sent the Facebook owner's shares up 8.8 percent overnight.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng bucked the trend in Asia with a gain of 1.8 percent.
