TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares retreated on Wednesday, tracking a decline on Wall Street led by technology shares including Nvidia and other stars that have been riding the mania surrounding artificial-intelligence.
Benchmarks fell in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, pulled lower by selling of computer chip makers.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 declined 1.5% to 42,888.55.
Japan reported its exports fell slightly more than expected in July, down 2.6% from the same month a year ago, pressured by higher tariffs on goods shipped to the U.S. Imports also fell, dropping 7.5% from a year ago. Exports to the U.S. fell 10.1%, while imports slipped 0.8%.
Computer-chip equipment makers Advantest plunged 5.6% and Disco Corp. dropped 4.7%. Chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 1.5%. and Lasertec Corp. lost 1.9%.
The Taiex in Taiwan fell 3.0% after chip maker TSMC dropped 3.6%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat at 25,125.45, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.8% to 3,755.92 after China’s central bank opted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged, as markets had expected.
Chinese toy company Pop Mart International Group's shares traded in Hong Kong soared 11.5% after its CEO said its annual revenue could top $4 billion this year, more than quadrupling after more than doubling in the first half of the year. Its CEO also announced that the company was releasing a mini version of its popular Labubu dolls.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained nearly 0.3% to 8,918.00.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 0.7% to 3,130.09, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned South Korean-U.S. military drills that began this week, and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces to counter rivals, according to North Korean state media.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.6% to 6,411.37, for a third straight loss. It remains near its all-time high set last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1% to 44,922.27, and the Nasdaq composite slumped 1.5% to 21,314.95.
The heaviest weight on the market was Nvidia, whose chips are powering much of the move into AI. It sank 3.5%.
Another AI darling, Palantir Technologies, dropped 9.4% for the largest loss in the S&P 500. It’s seen bets build up sharply that its stock price will drop, according to S3 Partners. Only Meta Platforms has seen a bigger increase this year in what’s called “short interest,” where traders essentially bet a stock’s price will fall. Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, sank 2.1%.
Criticism has been rising that stock prices across Wall Street have shot too high, too fast since hitting a bottom in April and have become too expensive. Palantir’s stock came into Tuesday with a tremendous gain of 130% for the year so far. The priciness of AI-related shares and potential for further trade restrictions in the strategically important chip industry prompted investors to sell.
Home Depot’s gain of 3.2% was the biggest reason the Dow did better than other indexes. The retailer reported results for the latest quarter that were a bit short of what analysts expected, but it delivered growth in revenue and stood by its prior forecasts for revenue and profit over the full year.
The week’s headliner for Wall Street is likely arriving on Friday. That’s when the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, will give a highly anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The setting has been home to big policy announcements from the Fed in the past, and the hope on Wall Street is that Powell may hint that cuts to interest rates are coming soon.
The Fed has kept its main interest rate steady this year, primarily because of the fear of the possibility that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could push inflation higher. But a surprisingly weak report on job growth across the country may be superseding that.
In other dealings early Wednesday, benchmark U.S. crude added 55 cents to $62.32 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 53 cents to $66.32 a barrel.
The U.S. dollar edged down to 147.28 Japanese yen from 147.66 yen. The euro cost $1.1639, down from $1.1648.
