(RTTNews) – Asian stocks ended mixed on Monday as heavyweight semiconductor and artificial intelligence-related shares faced selling pressure after Friday’s record gains.
Brent crude prices fell about 5 percent, bond yields dipped and the U.S. dollar index slipped below the 100-point threshold after U.S. President Donald Trump held off on a fresh attack on Iran and said an agreement was close, signaling renewed diplomatic momentum.
Gold ticked higher and held above $4,050 an ounce amid easing inflationary concerns.
Ahead of the resumption of peace talks, Trump said a planned large-scale military strike on Iran was called off on the condition that efforts to quickly reach an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the impasse over Tehran’s nuclear capabilities move forward.
The yen surged against the dollar after Japan and the United States conducted coordinated yen-buying intervention and vowed they will not hesitate to take further action.
While Trump called the move a “signal of friendship”, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama warned jittery currency markets of further intervention if volatility persisted.
While China’s Shanghai Composite index dipped 0.59 percent to 3,809.66, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.48 percent to 26,009.40.
Alibaba Group Holding shares surged 7 percent after the technology giant launched what it described as its largest and most capable artificial intelligence model, Qwen3.8-Max.
Japanese markets ended lower as the yen rose more than 1 percent following suspected intervention by authorities to halt the currency’s slide to fresh 40-year lows.
The Nikkei average fell 0.94 percent to 63,754.90 after hitting a one-week high in the previous session.
The broader Topix index settled 1.08 percent lower at 3,960.03, dragged down by electronics and auto stocks. Murata Manufacturing and Toyota Motor both fell over 3 percent.
Seoul stocks plunged as semiconductor heavyweights faced selling pressure after a record surge the previous day. The Kospi index tumbled 5.12 percent to 6,257.45 after climbing nearly 18 percent on Friday.
SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics both fell around 9 percent after having risen by almost the daily permissible limit on Friday.
Australian markets advanced, led by banking and healthcare stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 edged up by 0.47 percent to 9,019.30 as reports of progress in peace talks involving Iran boosted optimism over the potential for a diplomatic resolution. The broader All Ordinaries index ended up 0.45 percent at 9,178.40.
Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index closed up 0.55 percent at 13,774.93 in a broad-based rally.
U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, extending Thursday’s rally despite bond yields surging to multi-decade high levels on worries about inflation staying high because of the U.S.-Iran war.
In a statement explaining his dissenting vote against holding the Fed’s key overnight borrowing rate steady, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that he believes small hikes now can prevent the need for larger moves later.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack argued that the longer that high inflation persists, the more challenging and costly it can be to bring it back down to 2 percent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1 percent, the S&P 500 surged 0.7 percent and the narrower Dow gained half a percent as Amazon beat expectations on the top and bottom lines and crude oil prices pulled back off their highs after an initial spike on news of Iran attacking two tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military escort.
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