World Shares Mostly Decline Friday     06/05 04:59

   World shares were mostly lower and South Korea's benchmark dropped more than 
5% on Friday after sharp declines for some big artificial intelligence-related 
stocks in the U.S.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares were mostly lower and South Korea's benchmark 
dropped more than 5% on Friday after sharp declines for some big artificial 
intelligence-related stocks in the U.S.

   U.S. futures were also trading mixed. The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, 
while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.

   In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.3% to 10,389.74. 
Germany's DAX was nearly unchanged at 24,950.24, while France's CAC 40 gained 
0.3% to 8,269.98.

   On Wall Street on Thursday, computer chipmaker Broadcom's shares sank 12.6% 
when it gave a forecast that fell short of investors' expectations, raising 
concerns over the wider AI and technology sector. U.S. memory chip maker Micron 
Technology dropped 7.7%, and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike Holdings fell 
3.8%.

   The sell-offs led investors in Asia to dump AI-related shares.

   South Korea's Kospi sank 5.5% to 8,160.59. The index has roughly doubled in 
the past year, lifted by gains for big tech companies like SK Hynix, which lost 
9.9%, and Samsung Electronics, which shed 6.4%.

   Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 1.3% to 66,588.12, with technology shares leading 
the decline, even as official data showed that Japan's real wages rose for the 
fourth straight month. Chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron's shares fell 6.6%.

   Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.2% to 24,961.95, while the Shanghai 
Composite index lost 0.7% to 4,027.74.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7% to 8,625.10.

   Taiwan's Taiex gave up 1.3%, while India's Sensex was down 0.3%.

   Oil prices continued to fall. Brent crude, the international standard, gave 
up 0.8% to $94.23 per barrel. It was approximately $70 per barrel before the 
war began in late February.

   Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 1.1% to $92.04 a barrel.

   On Thursday, the benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial 
Average gained 1.7% to a record. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite edged 0.1% 
lower.

   Strong corporate earnings and excitement about AI demand have helped push 
U.S. stocks and some other markets to new heights, despite repeated jolts from 
the Iran war. Oil prices are still under pressure as the Strait of Hormuz, a 
narrow waterway crucial for global oil and natural gas transport, remains 
effectively closed, and the war-caused energy shock is threatening to slow 
economic growth and fuel inflation in many countries.

   American and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative deal last week to 
extend their ceasefire, but the agreement has not been finalized, as meanwhile 
developments in Lebanon have cast doubt on prospects for a permanent end to the 
conflict.

   On Thursday, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah rejected the 
latest ceasefire agreement between the Lebanese and Israel governments.

   "While there are few signs of progress in US-Iran talks, the oil market 
continues to trade on expectations of an imminent deal that would resume flows 
through the Strait of Hormuz," ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and 
Ewa Manthey wrote in a report.

   Hopes regarding the U.S.-Iran negotiations may have been "overly 
optimistic," they said.

   In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 159.94 Japanese yen 
from 160.03 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1638, up from $1.1610.