HONG KONG (AP) — Oil prices gained Wednesday and Asian shares were mostly trading lower as South Korea’s Kospi extended its losses after falling more than 16% over the past two days led by artificial intelligence-related stocks.Crude prices remain volatile after the U.S. said early Thursday it had conducted a “heavy wave” of strikes against Iran, responding to an attack on a U.S. base.U.S. futures edged higher after losses on Wall Street.In South Korea, recent drops in its benchmark Kospi, a big beneficiary of the global boom in AI, have been seen by some analysts as a reflection of broader doubts about massive investments by technology giants in expanding AI capacity.The Kospi was swinging on Thursday and ended 1.2% lower at 5,593.56, after falling 10.8% on Tuesday and nearly 6% on Wednesday. The benchmark has fallen more than 38% from its all-time closing high of more than 9,100 in June, though it’s still up nearly 30% so far this year.
Samsung Electronics fell 0.7%, even after the South Korean technology giant reported a record operating profit for the latest quarter, largely in line with estimates.Chipmaker SK Hynix lost 5.6% after sinking more than 9% on Wednesday, when it also reported a record quarterly operating profit, which ballooned nearly sixfold. That was still lower than what analysts had expected and disappointed investors dumped its shares.
