BANGKOK (AP) — Shares plunged Friday in Asia, led by heavy losses in Japan and South Korea as traders sold to lock in gains from recent rallies in stocks related to artificial intelligence.
U.S. futures also declined, while oil prices fell.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index shed 5% to 68,783.50 and the Kospi in Seoul plunged 8.4% to 8,182.54.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.9% to 22,644.49, while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 2.1% to 4,032.30.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,745.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex gave up 3.3%.
Both the Nikkei and Kospi hit record highs earlier this week.
The S&P 500 finished nearly unchanged with a dip of less than 0.1% after swinging between gains and losses throughout the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 71 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.5%.
Micron Technology helped lead the market after jumping 15.7%. The maker of computer memory reported much bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it gave a stronger growth forecast for the current quarter than Wall Street expected. That helped allay worries a bit that its stock had grown too expensive after coming into the day with a surge of 267% so far this year.
SpaceX, meanwhile, fell 1% to drop below $153 for its lowest finish since its vaunted debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, declined 1.8% to $74.13 per barrel early Friday. It has fallen from its highs above $100 caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because of the Iran war, which slowed the global flow of oil.
U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 2% to $70.46.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.64 Japanese yen from 161.80 yen. The euro rose to $1.1376 from $1.1371.
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
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