Asian shares are mostly lower as Kospi falls 4% and tech giants decline on Wall Street

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly lower and South Korea’s Kospi dropped more than 4% on Thursday following declines for some Big Tech giants including memory chipmaker SK Hynix.

Oil prices held steady, with Brent crude trading near $79 a barrel. Uncertainty about the direction of the U.S. war with Iran is still overhanging markets despite hopes for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Markets will get an update Friday on U.S. jobs with the monthly employment report for July, and analysts say investors appear to be bracing for its potential impact.

“Asia's chip selloff looks like a combination of profit-taking and risk reduction ahead of Friday's nonfarm payroll report,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.

Strong corporate profits and expectations for more growth ahead generally have been steering U.S. stocks higher. But Asian benchmarks have been hit by bouts of selling of computer chipmakers and other companies related to the boom in artificial intelligence.

SK Hynix was down 9.7% after dropping ahead of the open in Seoul, while its larger rival Samsung Electronics lost 6.1% in the latest rout for shares linked to the AI boom.

The Kospi lost 4.5% to 6,306.40.

Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1.2% to 65,538.44.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 1.8% to 25,463.51, while the Shanghai Composite index was nearly unchanged at 3,878.92.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5%.

U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was coming soon. But there have been many stops and starts during the five-month-old conflict that has stifled the global supply of oil and rattled energy markets.

The price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.3% to $79.24 a barrel. Oil prices have been swinging for months and were as high as $102 per barrel at one point during the conflict, jolting already stubbornly high inflation. Higher oil prices pushed gasoline prices higher and increased shipping costs for a wide range of products.

U.S. benchmark crude oil declined 0.4% to $74.93 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% from an all-time high to close at 7,723.55. The Dow industrials rose 0.5% to 54,349.12. The Nasdaq composite lost 0.8% to 26,363.44.

Among big technology companies losing ground, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, fell 4% and Microsoft lost 1.1%.

Overall, the market has been rising as companies head into the closing stretch of their latest round of earnings reports with sharp overall gains. Three-quarters of the companies within the S&P 500 have reported results so far, and Wall Street expects profit growth of 50% when they are all finished.

The Walt Disney Co. rose 3.6% after easily beating Wall Street’s profit forecasts, helped by a $1 billion box office haul from “Toy Story 5” and theme park revenue.

Booking Holdings jumped 6.6% after reporting that strong travel demand drove profit and revenue growth during its most recent quarter.

Elon Musk's SpaceX fell 13.6% following the release late Tuesday of its first quarterly report as a public company, which showed that it sharply boosted spending on artificial intelligence. The company did help give semiconductor giant Nvidia a 3.4% boost after announcing it would exclusively use that company’s chips for its artificial intelligence technology.

Musk had said earlier he would use chips from both Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for SpaceX and his electric vehicle company, Tesla.

Inflation concerns have been hanging over markets and the Federal Reserve. The central bank has been holding its key benchmark rate steady as it monitors the costs and the impact on the economy.

In other dealings early Thursday, the dollar flipped to 157.73 Japanese yen from 157.77 yen. The euro fell to $1.1549 from $1.1555.

Associated Press writer Damian J. Troise contributed.

Specialist Michael Pistillo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Aug.. 5, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A person stands near an electronic board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks past an electronic board showing Japan's Nikkei index chart at a securities firm Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks past an electronic board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk past an electronic board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Mariners reliever Gabe Speier was ejected after hitting Detroit's Gleyber Torres with a pitch in the eighth inning Wednesday night, making Torres the fourth Tigers batter plunked in the game.

The benches and bullpens cleared after Torres was hit, though there appeared to be no punches thrown while the teams gathered around home plate. Mariners manager Dan Wilson was also ejected in the aftermath.

Speier had relieved starter Bryan Woo, who hit three batters during his seven scoreless innings in the Mariners' 4-2 win.

Speier retired the first two batters he faced before pegging Torres on the upper left leg with a 96.3 mph fastball. That came on the second pitch of the at-bat, after Torres had gotten out of the way of a 95.9 mph pitch that was also way inside.

Detroit left-hander Enmanuel De Jesus hit Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh with a 95-mph fastball in the bottom of the seventh.

Tigers rookie Max Clark took a pitch off his elbow guard leading off the third, the first of three consecutive innings when Woo hit batters.

Riley Green was hit by a pitch in the fourth, and Zach McKinstry in the fifth — both breaking balls on the back foot. McKinstry got first base only after a replay review showed that the ball grazed the front of his foot.

https://apnews.com/article/tigers-mariners-score-81dc01a1718c91e6e037890fd50f2a41

Seattle Mariners' Cal Raleigh is hit by a pitch from Detroit Tigers pitcher Enmanuel De Jesus in the seventh inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)

First base umpire Mark Wegner ejects Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson in the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)

Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers members rush the mound in the eighth inning of a baseball game on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)

Detroit Tigers' Gleyber Torres is hit by a pitch in the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Kevin Ng)