HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares fell Wednesday and U.S. futures edged lower as markets worldwide watched for the results of the U.S. midterm elections.
Oil prices also declined.
Share prices have wavered recently as technology and artificial-intelligence stocks have been hit by bouts of selling as investors worry their prices have shot too high in the frenzy around artificial intelligence.
Uncertainty over Tuesday's election also has hung over the markets, though history suggests the outcome may not matter much for markets both in and outside the U.S. Looking back to 1970, the S&P 500 has had a positive return every time in the six months following a midterm election, according to Brock Weimer, an analyst at Edward Jones.
Still, a significant change could have implications for the AI boom, analysts said.
“The AI trade has spent months worrying about financing costs. Now it may have to start worrying about the politicians controlling the power grid,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
As results filtered in Wednesday, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 3.6% to 60,835.36, its lowest level since early May.
Shares of OpenAI investor SoftBank Group slumped 8%. Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings tumbled 10.8%, extending losses as its guidance for the October-December period missed market expectations.
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 3.2% to 5,466.83, as memory chipmaker SK Hynix sank 3.2% and Samsung Electronics slid 1.8%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 0.2% to 23,489.88, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 3,603.83.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.8% to 8,812.10 after the central bank raised interest rates Tuesday.
Taiwan’s Taiex was down 2.3%.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4%, even though most of the stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 197 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8%.
Chipmakers Nvidia and were the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 upward. Also boosting the market were several companies that are spending heavily on AI. Microsoft, Amazon and Meta Platforms all rose more than 2%.
Apple was long seen on Wall Street as a Big Tech company that’s less dependent on AI. But it’s still feeling the effects of the AI boom.
Memory chips for computers have become more expensive because of the demand created by the rush to build AI data centers. Those higher costs are hitting Apple, which said it expects to make less profit from each $1 of its revenue during the final three months of this year.
That helped send Apple’s stock down 1.9%, even though the seller of iPhones and Mac computers reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Some on Wall Street speculate a Democratic sweep of Congress could lead to more regulations and restrictions on AI development. But Donald Trump would still be president and have veto power. Wall Street generally prefers that control of Washington be split between the Republicans and the Democrats. That is seen as offering less risk of sweeping policy changes that could reshape the economy.
On the winning side of Wall Street Tuesday were stocks of several companies that reported stronger profits for the summer than analysts expected. DuPont rallied 8.6% for one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500, and Celanese climbed 5%.
Companies are expected to continue to deliver big gains in profits as the U.S. economy keeps chugging along, even with high inflation and elevated interest rates.
An encouraging report Tuesday on the U.S. job market said employers were advertising more job openings at the end of September than economists expected. That helped push the yield on the 10-year Treasury up to 4.96% from 4.91% late Monday.
In other dealings early Wednesday, the price of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.5% to $103.14 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil shed 0.7% to $95.45 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar fell to 157.76 Japanese yen from 158.69 yen. The euro rose to $1.1241 from $1.1194.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
