Asian shares were mixed and oil prices retreated on Monday, falling sharply on renewed hopes for progress in diplomatic efforts between the US and Iran.
US futures advanced after US stocks fell Friday to their worst day since June as investors dumped technology- and artificial intelligence-related stocks.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gave up early gains, slipping 0.3 per cent to 63,081.86 as some major technology companies fell.
Shares of OpenAI investor SoftBank Group dropped 1.6 per cent.
Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings plunged 15.8 per cent as its earnings forecasts disappointed some analysts and investors.
South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index rose 2.2 per cent to 5,859.08. Samsung Electronics added 1.8 per cent, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix jumped 3.8 per cent.
Technology stocks have been volatile as investors worry that the AI buildup may prove to be a bubble.
Apple is due to report its latest earnings results later in the day.
Last week, earnings reports from Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon rattled markets and raised fresh questions over whether their massive AI-related spending will bring profitable returns as quickly as hoped.
While recent developments do not necessarily mean that the AI boom is beginning to unravel, the debate is entering another phase, Sunil Tirumalai at UBS Global Research wrote in a recent note.
Investors have become “distinctly more nervous about a handful of companies with weaker balance sheets or bigger financial commitments,” he said, rather than the technology sector as a whole.
“Some cracks have appeared,” said Tirumalai. “Increasingly, the question will be whether all the money being spent on it can generate adequate financial returns.”
