World Markets Mixed, Asian Shares Slump07/07 05:07

   World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Tuesday following a rebound for 
AI stocks that lifted benchmarks on Wall Street.

   BANGKOK (AP) -- World shares and U.S. futures were mixed on Tuesday 
following a rebound for AI stocks that lifted benchmarks on Wall Street.

   In early European trading, Germany's DAX shed 0.5% to 25,695.64, while the 
CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.3% to 8,507.95. Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.4% to 
10,695.02.

   The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.1% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial 
Average edged 0.2% higher.

   Asian shares markets retreated, with South Korea's Kospi closing 4.9% lower 
at 7,656.31 after dropping as much as 8% earlier in the day. Shares in computer 
chipmaker Samsung Electronics slumped 7.7% even after it announced its 
operating income surged 19-fold to 89.4 trillion won ($58.7 billion) in the 
last quarter, while its revenue more than doubled. SK Hynix lost 6.7%.

   Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at the South Korean securities firm Mirae Asset, 
attributed Samsung's decline to foreign investors who were selling to lock in 
recent gains and rebalancing their portfolios.

   AI stocks have been gyrating on fears their prices have shot too high, 
raising questions about whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data 
centers can possibly create enough gains in productivity and profits to make 
back all the investments.

   "The first proper AI stress test may not have arrived with weak demand, a 
capex warning, or some sudden crack in the data center story. It may have 
arrived with Samsung posting an extraordinary quarter and the stock falling 
anyway," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

   SK Hynix will further test investors' appetite for AI this week, aiming to 
raise $28 billion by selling shares of stock that will trade in the United 
States on the Nasdaq. That would make it one of the biggest U.S. offerings 
ever, behind SpaceX's IPO from last month, which raised $75 billion.

   The company's stock in Seoul has more than tripled so far this year because 
of the AI boom, despite sharp losses in recent weeks.

   Tokyo's Nikkei 225 declined 2.1% to 68,256.96. Computer chipmaker Tokyo 
Electron lost 3.9% and chipmaker Kioxia Holdings shed 11.3%.

   The Hang Seng in Hong Kong declined 0.5% to 23,496.98, while the Shanghai 
Composite index gave up 1.3% to 3,990.24. Taiwan's Taiex lost 2.3%.

   In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.3% to 8,803.90 and India's Sensex 
shed 0.1%.

   On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.7%, pulling to within 1% of its all-time high, 
even though the majority of stocks within the index fell.

   The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligence technology 
industry sent the Nasdaq composite 1.1% higher. The Dow industrials rose 0.3% 
to a record.

   Broadcom was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. It rose 3.7% 
after announcing long-term agreements to provide silicon products to Apple. It 
was coming off two straight losses of more than 2% on Wednesday and Thursday at 
the end of last week, before Friday's holiday in advance of the Fourth of July.

   SpaceX erased an early gain to fall 1% in the last day of trading before 
it's scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest non-financial stocks 
on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds like the QQQ exchange-traded 
fund, which mimic the index, to buy SpaceX themselves.

   In the oil market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international 
standard, rose 87 cents to $72.86 a barrel. That's close to where it was before 
the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, sending prices 
spiking.

   The stability of supplies remains uncertain. A tanker traveling off the 
coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz caught on fire early Tuesday morning 
after being struck by a projectile, the British military said.

   The attack was the latest targeting a vessel moving through the narrow mouth 
of the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded 
once passed in peacetime. Iranian state television said the liquefied natural 
gas tanker came under attack after ignoring warnings but did not directly claim 
the assault.

   U.S. benchmark crude added 69 cents to $69.24 a barrel.

   In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.93 Japanese yen from 162.09 
yen. The euro slipped to $1.1426 from $1.1442.