World Shares Mixed Tuesday             07/28 04:46

   South Korea's Kospi index plunged nearly 11% on Tuesday on heavy selling of 
computer chipmaking stocks that have been battered recently by waves of fears 
that the boom in artificial intelligence may turn out to be a bubble.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- South Korea's Kospi index plunged nearly 11% on Tuesday on 
heavy selling of computer chipmaking stocks that have been battered recently by 
waves of fears that the boom in artificial intelligence may turn out to be a 
bubble.

   European shares opened moderately higher after a day of losses for most 
Asian markets, while U.S. futures were mixed.

   Oil prices declined more than 2%.

   Trading was temporarily halted at times as Kospi dropped to its lowest level 
since April, closing 10.8% lower at 6,023.66. Shares in chipmaker Samsung 
Electronics sank 13.4% while those of SK Hynix tumbled 14.7%.

   In early European trading, Germany's DAX gained 0.6% to 25,511.93, while the 
CAC 40 in Paris added 0.5% to 8,450.71. Britain's FTSE 100 picked up 0.6% to 
10,846.42.

   The future for the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones 
Industrial Average gained 0.3%.

   On Monday, SK Hynix's U.S.-traded shares fell to below the $149 initial 
public offering, or IPO, price for its Wall Street debut earlier this month, 
closing at $143 a share.

   A key factor driving the selling of AI-related shares, analysts said, is the 
expectation that rising competition from Chinese AI startups and chipmakers 
might undermine gains for leading global companies whose shares have 
skyrocketed in the past months due to the AI frenzy.

   A 466% jump in the price of Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT in its trading 
debut Monday underscored such concerns. CXMT raised at least $8.6 billion in 
its IPO in Shanghai. But its shares dropped 4% Tuesday.

   Tuesday's chip stock sell-off also followed a report in the technology news 
publication The Information that China has begun mass production of homegrown 
deep ultraviolet, or DUV, chipmaking tools. Such equipment is used to print 
minute circuit patterns onto silicon wafers.

   "We believe the market was likely spooked by the progress of China's 
chipmaking equipment capabilities, and was worried that this progress would 
threaten the competitive position of global chipmaking and chip equipment 
leaders," said equity analyst Jing Jie Yu of Morningstar.

   "That said, we believe the sell-off today is largely a knee-jerk reaction 
and overdone," he said. The dominant position of global chipmaking leaders is 
unlikely to be threatened meaningfully, he said.

   Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 dropped 4% to 62,364.92. The Taiex in 
Taiwan skidded 4.7%, with shares of leading chipmaker TSMC, or Taiwan 
Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, falling 3%.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.4% to 25,310.85, while the Shanghai Composite 
index lost 1.2% to 3,813.31.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6% to 8,947.80.

   India's Sensex edged 0.1% lower.

   Oil prices extended their declines as the U.S. and Iran refrained from 
strikes in their on-again, off-again war. Regional officials said Monday that 
mediators had made progress in getting the U.S. and Iran back to negotiations 
after they paused attacks.

   Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.2% to $84.03 a barrel. It 
was trading around $72 per barrel before the Iran war began in late February.

   U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 1.7% to $81.20 a barrel.

   On Monday, the benchmark S&P 500 gained less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones 
Industrial Average ended 0.5% higher, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 
composite edged 0.2% lower.

   Shares of several major chipmaking stocks declined, pulling benchmarks 
lower. Shares of AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, sank 5.2%, Nvidia dropped 5%, 
and Micron Technology fell 2.3%.

   In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 163.82 Japanese yen 
from 163.75 yen. The euro fell to $1.1367 from $1.1369.