TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares retreated on Wednesday, tracking a decline on Wall Street led by technology shares including Nvidia and other stars that have been riding the mania surrounding artificial-intelligence.
Benchmarks fell in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, pulled lower by selling of computer chip makers.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 1.7% to 42,787.28.
Japan reported its exports fell slightly more than expected in July, pressured by higher tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S.
Computer-chip equipment makers Advantest plunged 6.6% and Disco Corp. dropped 4.7%. Chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 1.9%. and Lasertec Corp. lost 1.8%.
The Taiex in Taiwan fell 2.4% after chip maker TSMC dropped 3.8%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.6% to 24,980.20 while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 3,725.22 after China’s central bank opted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged, as markets had expected.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.2% to 8,917.60.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.4% to 3,096.09, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned South Korean-U.S. military drills that began this week, and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, according to North Korean state media.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 6,411.37, for a third straight loss. It remains near its all-time high set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1% to 44,922.27, and the Nasdaq composite slumped 1.5% to 21,314.95.
The heaviest weight on the market was Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the move into AI. It sank 3.5%.
Another AI darling, Palantir Technologies, dropped 9.4% for the largest loss in the S&P 500. It’s seen bets build up sharply that its stock price will drop, according to S3 Partners. Only Meta Platforms has seen a bigger increase this year in what’s called “short interest,” where traders essentially bet a stock’s price will fall. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, sank 2.1%.
Criticism has been rising that stock prices across Wall Street have shot too high, too fast since hitting a bottom in April and have become too expensive. Palantir’s stock came into Tuesday with a tremendous gain of 130% for the year so far. The priciness of AI-related shares and potential for further trade restrictions in the strategically important chip industry prompted investors to sell.
Home Depot’s gain of 3.2% was the biggest reason the Dow did better than other indexes. The retailer reported results for the latest quarter that were a bit short of what analysts expected, but it delivered growth in revenue and stood by its prior forecasts for revenue and profit over the full year.
