World shares mostly decline with South Korea's Kospi down 6.4%, while oil prices slip

Hong Kong, Jul 16 (AP) World shares mostly declined Thursday and oil prices slipped despite a flurry of strikes between the US and Iran. US futures edged lower, while selling of AI-related shares weighed on benchmarks in South Korea and Japan. In early European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 10,475.27. France's CAC 40 also fell 0.4%, to 8,348.82. Germany's DAX shed 0.3% to 24,926.60. In South Korea, Seoul's Kospi index sank 6.4% to 6,820.60. An interest rate hike by the Bank of Korea also contributed its tumble. It was the first rate hike by the BOK since 2023 and was aimed at helping curb inflationary pressures due to the Iran war. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix dropped 11.5%, while Samsung Electronics fell 8.8%. Taiwan's Taiex ended nearly unchanged. Taiwan computer chipmaker TSMC gained 1.2% ahead of its earnings report. After the market closed, TSMC, often seen as a barometer for the global industry and for the boom in artificial intelligence, announced an additional $100 billion in investments in US computer chipmaking capacity, along with record earnings in the last quarter and higher revenue growth forecasts. In Amsterdam, Dutch chip machine maker ASML's shares rose 0.9% early Thursday following TSMC's stronger-than-expected results. In other Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 2.8% to 66,835.54. Shares of Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia skidded 15%. Chipmaking equipment company Tokyo Electron dropped 4.5%, while chip testing equipment maker Advantest gave up 5.9%. SoftBank Group shed 6.3%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was a regional outlier, gaining 1.3% to 25,008.60. Technology giant Alibaba's Hong Kong-traded shares climbed 3.1%, after China's cyberspace regulator said Wednesday it had approved the Apple Intelligence AI tool for use in China. An Alibaba spokesperson said its Qwen model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 1.9% to 3,882.41. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 closed flat at 8,840.70, while India's Sensex picked up 0.2%. Oil prices meandered, remaining at elevated levels as the US intensified its strikes against Iran, while Iran targeted missile and drone fire on Kuwait and Bahrain. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 0.3% to $84.68 a barrel. It was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the war began. Benchmark US crude slipped less than 0.1% to $79.57 per barrel. On Wednesday, Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow climbed 0.3%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.6%. A US report showing inflation slowed in June and strong earnings results from American investment company BlackRock among other major firms also helped push the market higher. BlackRock's shares rose 6.6% after it reported stronger-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit. In other dealings early Thursday, the US dollar fell to 162.14 Japanese yen from 162.19 yen. The euro rose to $1.1467 from $1.1464. (AP) SCY SCY