BANGKOK (AP) — Shares skidded Friday in Asia after Brent crude shot to its highest price since May as heavy fighting in the Middle East again threatened to slow the global flow of oil and gas.U.S. futures were little changed after tumbles for two of Wall Street’s most influential companies, Alphabet and Tesla, yanked U.S. stocks to their worst loss in a month. Looming over markets: The deepening crisis in the Middle East, worries over the a potential bubble in investments in artificial intelligence and another round of tariff hikes by U.S. President Donald Trump.The U.S. is imposing taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners, accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, saying they failed to fully enforce bans on goods produced by forced labor, the Trump administration said Thursday. That move came just as the clock was running out Friday on stopgap levies the president imposed after a stinging defeat for other such tariffs at the Supreme Court.
Such uncertainties have helped push the U.S. dollar to a 40-year high against the Japanese yen. A dollar bought 163.79 yen early Friday, down from 163.85 yen and a level last seen in 1986. The euro rose to $1.1387 from $1.1377. South Korea’s Kospi stuttered lower, falling 5.7% to $6,690.62. Samsung Electronics sank7.6% and shares in computer chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 8.3%.
