TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were trading mixed on Monday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul leading gains thanks to buying of computer chipmakers' stocks.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.7% to 66,104.93, while South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3.3% to 6,907.53.
Click to Gallery
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
An employee walks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock prices at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Shares in Samsung Electronics jumped 4.5% and memory chipmaker SK Hynix surged 6.2%.
“The AI complex continues to provide the local equity markets with its most dependable growth pulse,” said Stephen Innes, a former trader, about the Asian markets.
“The AI complex is firmly in the leadership seat and reminding investors that, for all the hand-wringing around valuation, the hardware trade is still refusing to roll over.”
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.1% to 25,377.12, while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.2% to 3,920.70.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was virtually unchanged at 9,005.30.
In energy markets, Brent crude, the international standard, added 67 cents to $96.95 a barrel following further escalation of the six-month -long U.S. war with Iran.
The U.S. military denied that Iran struck an uncrewed American military vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains effectively closed, calling the claim a “total lie.”
A senior Iranian official said Tehran plans to announce an “exclusion zone” outside the strait, targeting vessels it believes are attempting to transit the waterway. That followed U.S. strikes on three Iranian oil tankers in response to Tehran launching ballistic missiles at U.S. warships.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 61 cents to $92.09 a barrel.
U.S. markets will be closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday. They ended last week lower after the government reported that employers unexpectedly added 162,000 jobs last month. That could increase the likelihood the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates later this month.
Friday on Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite gave back 0.3%.
Market players expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates before the year ends to help cool inflation, which remains well above 3%. The Fed's next policy-making committee's meeting ends Sept. 16.
The Fed has a stated goal of cooling inflation to a target of 2%. August inflation figures are expected on Sept. 11.
U.S. government bond yields, which had eased last week, rose Friday as the bond market weighed the implications of the jobs report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 4.78% from 4.77%.
In currency trading early Monday, the U.S. dollar was little changed at about 156.22 Japanese yen. The euro cost $1.1609, down from $1.1621.
The weakening yen has been a major area of concern for Japanese leaders. Its value has rebounded after the dollar surged to the 160 yen level last week. Market watchers are focused on what the Bank of Japan might do on interest rates at its next policy board meeting later this month.
“The stronger-than-expected U.S. employment report generated only a limited recovery in the dollar, suggesting that the market is currently responding more strongly to the changing BOJ policy outlook,” said Linh Tran, a market analyst at XS.com.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A dealer stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
An employee walks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics Co. stock prices at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A person stands in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
WASHINGTON (AP) — JD Vance publicly broke from President Donald Trump 's defense of the Iran war Wednesday after the Republican Party's deep losses in the midterm elections, attempting to distance himself from voters' clear rebuke of the president as the vice president faces questions about his own political ambitions.
Vance, who has said he would decide after the election whether to run for president in 2028, issued a lengthy social media post blaming the unpopular conflict with Iran for the GOP's drubbing. Vance said, "If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.”
But arguing that the war was worth it is what Trump repeatedly did on the campaign trail, continued to do in interviews as election results came in and did again Wednesday morning. As he led reporters on an impromptu visit to the ballroom he's constructing at the White House, Trump said, “The Iran thing, we had to do and we continue to do it."
Trump said he spoke to Vance on Wednesday morning and, when asked about the vice president's post, he called it “good” and said, “I know how he feels about it," and “I think it was fine."
The president also said he “knew the war was going to impact” the midterm elections but again defended his actions.
Vance, who had long advocated for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas, was lukewarm in his defense of the conflict after Trump launched it and even became the face of an unsuccessful attempt to end the fighting.
Democrats showed they intend to make Vance own the war.
“If Vance has felt this way all along, why didn’t he speak out forcefully?” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement. “Why didn’t he resign? And most importantly, why didn’t he stand up for Americans?"
The vice president, she said, "will always do what’s most politically convenient for him in the moment — even if it means throwing Americans under the bus. Vance owns this administration’s failures.”
Democrats swept control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, defeating GOP candidates even in deep-red areas that Trump carried by wide margins two years ago.
“There’s no doubt this is a repudiation of the last two years," said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and worked in Trump’s White House in his first term.
He said Vance will still have a big microphone as the sitting vice president, and the election results don't mean he won't be the GOP's nominee for president in two years.
But, Short said, “It certainly doesn’t help his case, that’s for sure. I would argue it does hurt.”
When Pence was in the role, he intentionally tried not to distance himself from Trump and shared his opinions privately, Short said. But Vance’s post Wednesday seemed to be “an intentional separation” from the president despite being inherently linked to him.
“You made that bargain when you agreed to be vice president," he said.
Vance, in his post, said that Republican voters cast their ballots for Democrats because of the war, the cost of living, America not being prioritized and the U.S. relationship with Israel — a dynamic where he’s also sounded a different note than Trump.
“The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone," he wrote.
Unlike the president, Vance declined to endorseIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection and this summer publicly chastised members of Israel’s government for opposing Trump’s efforts to resolve the war with Iran.
Vance, who has been a staunch defender of the administration’s immigration policies, also appeared to be seeking some distance from the immigration crackdown that drew a backlash.
“I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement — by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance,” he wrote.
But he said he rejected any politicians who might propose amnesty for people living in the country illegally.
About 6 in 10 voters said the U.S. made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in the United States. Most of those voters dissatisfied with the Iran war backed the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race, but the survey suggested the Iran war was not the leading issue for most voters.
Only about one-third of voters said the war in Iran was “crucial” to their vote for Congress, well below the roughly half who said that about the cost of living or government corruption.
Nearly all voters who backed the Democratic candidate in their U.S. House race said going to war with Iran was the “wrong decision,” while roughly 8 in 10 voters who backed the Republican candidate said it was the “right decision.”
A former Marine who served in Iraq, Vance had been critical of that conflict and said after becoming vice president that a Trump administration would not send troops into the “open-ended conflicts” of the past.
After Trump launched the war with Iran this past spring, Vance was noticeably quiet in speaking about it, a conspicuous change for a politician known for being a pugnacious defender of the president.
This summer, he tried to argue the conflict was worth it, telling conservative podcast host Megyn Kelly in an interview that, “If we transformed the Middle East, this is fundamentally worth it."
Associated Press Writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Swanton, Ohio. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)
Vice President JD Vance arrive at a campaign rally at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Swanton, Ohio. (Tom Brenner/Pool via AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks during for a campaign rally at Griffiss International Airport, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 in Rome, N.Y. (Tom Brenner/Pool Photo via AP)
