The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3%, with decliners narrowly outnumbering gainers. Technology stocks led the losses, with Samsung falling over 5% even after quarterly profit surged 19-fold. The Kospi Index retreated 3.5%, while SK Hynix Inc. shares dropped 1% after kicking off the formal marketing process for its US listing.
Elsewhere, West Texas Intermediate crude traded below $69 a barrel on signs of growing oversupply, with Saudi Arabia slashing prices and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz picking up. During the New York session, short-term US Treasury notes edged higher. The yen was steady around 162.08 per dollar even as hedge funds turned the most negative on the Japanese currency since 2007.
Recent swings in tech stocks have left investors searching for fresh evidence that the AI boom can sustain its momentum. Even after US semiconductor shares posted a record quarter, attention has turned to whether soaring capital spending, rising competition and expanding capacity will deliver the earnings growth needed to justify lofty expectations.
“Are we in an AI bubble? We think the answer depends on whether AI can turn today’s scarcity into tomorrow’s abundance,” according to BlackRock Investment Institute’s team led by Jean Boivin. “Markets are increasingly pricing that outcome, expecting AI to lift productivity and growth enough to sustain today’s extraordinary earnings.”
In Asia, early attention was on Samsung’s earnings. The company’s quarterly profit surged 19-fold, soaring past elevated expectations due to rocketing demand for memory chips needed in AI data centers.
The world’s largest memory maker reported preliminary operating income of 89.4 trillion won ($58 billion) in the three months through June, dwarfing its performance for all of 2025. Analysts on average had projected 84.2 trillion won.Elsewhere, short-dated Treasuries gained during the US session as last week’s jobs report continued to reverberate through the market, leading traders to wager the Federal Reserve is less likely to raise interest rates in the coming months.
