HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks were mostly higher Monday, but South Korea’s Kospi fell nearly 5% as investors dumped more artificial intelligence stocks.
Markets in Japan were closed on Monday due to holidays, while U.S. futures were mixed.
Oil prices jumped more than 2%, with Brent crude topping $90 a barrel, as the US and Iran edged closer to resuming full-scale war. On Monday morning, the US announced new attacks for the ninth night in a row. Iran responds to US strikes by targeting US allies in the Middle East.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.6% to $90.40 a barrel, while benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.2% to $83.58 a barrel.
“The US and Iran continue to trade blows that are proving lethal for both sides,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Eva Manthey wrote in a commentary on Monday. “If this escalation is not stopped, we could return to large-scale attacks throughout the Persian Gulf.”
They noted that tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global oil transportation, has been almost completely stopped, adding to pressure on supplies.
In Asian share trading, the Kospi, which has benefited significantly from the global artificial intelligence frenzy, fell 4.9% to 6,490.97. Two of the company’s most valuable stocks suffered losses. Samsung Electronics shares lost 4.4%, while shares of memory chip maker SK Hynix fell 3.3%.
Taiwan’s Taiex, also active in artificial intelligence stocks, fell less than 0.1% as shares of its top chipmaker TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. grew by 2%. It fell 7.3% on Friday after the company said it plans to spend an additional $100 billion to expand its U.S. chip manufacturing capacity.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2.1% to 25,105.78 and the Shanghai Composite Index added 1.2% to 3,808.39.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.2% to 8,815.30.
The Indian Sensex fell 0.9%.
Shares of artificial intelligence-related companies, including chip makers, fell on Friday, dragging global markets lower. Promises of huge spending on AI are fueling fears that the sector could be in a bubble, with many investors looking to sell to take advantage of recent big gains.
Markets were also rocked by the launch of another powerful Chinese artificial intelligence model, this time Beijing-based Moonshot AI.
The impact of the new open-source artificial intelligence model Kimi K3 was similar to when China’s “DeepSeek moment” shook global markets in early 2025. It was seen as another sign that cheaper and more capable Chinese AI models are increasingly challenging rivals such as Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended the week down 1% at 7,457.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8% to 52,146.42 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.4% to 25,520.24.
Chipmaker stocks took a hit, with Nvidia shares falling 2.2% and shares of Broadcom and AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, falling 1%.
Shares of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, fell 5.4% after falling below its initial public offering price of $135 a share, hitting its lowest level since it began public trading on the Nasdaq last month.
In other trades, the US dollar fell to 162.37 Japanese yen from 162.43 yen. The euro traded at $1.1446, down from $1.1438.
Chang Ho-him, Associated Press
A screen showing the Korean Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is seen at the Hana Bank dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) – Associated Press A dealer walks past screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the US dollar to South Korean won exchange rate at the Hana Bank dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) – Associated Press A television cameraman prepares to film near screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the U.S. dollar to South Korean won exchange rate and Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotes (KOSDAQ) at the Hana Bank dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) – Associated Press Screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the US dollar to South Korean won exchange rate, and Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotes (KOSDAQ) are posted at the Hana Bank dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) – Associated Press