Asian Shares Mixed As Oil Prices Ease

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks ended mixed on Monday amid growing concerns about massive AI spending. Asia's factory growth continued to expand in October, but growth slowed in major chip exporters, private surveys showed earlier today.

Following Intel's nearly 29 percent plunge on Friday, its worst one-day drop in decades, investors looked ahead to upcoming earnings from Apple, AMD and Palantir for further direction.

The U.S. dollar struggled for direction ahead of this week's U.S. midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

The euro languished near a 17-month low after Fitch lowered France's sovereign rating outlook from "stable" to "negative."

Gold traded up nearly 1 percent at $3,904 an ounce after plummeting 3.7 percent in the previous session to hit a one-year low.

The precious metal slumped 6.8 percent last month, marking its worst October performance since 2008.

Brent crude futures fell nearly 3 percent toward $110 a barrel after climbing 13.6 percent in October.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Dubuque, lowa, U.S. Donald Trump has renewed his threat to strike Iran but claimed that U.S. military action had destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities and the conflict would end soon.

In a report published on November 1, Radio Free Europe quoted Trump as saying that the United States still needed to deal with one or two Iranian targets.

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Trump prefers a diplomatic resolution to the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, raising hopes of a settlement and easing concerns about further energy supply disruptions.

Ongoing discussions involving Iranian officials and Qatari mediators have also raised hopes of possible breakthrough that could ease supply concerns and improve the outlook for global energy markets.

China's Shanghai Composite index surged 1.08 percent to 3,638.03 after state-owned banks reported their fastest quarterly profit growth in several years.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.42 percent to 23,393.32 as traders waited for earnings from Apple to provide some relief from AI capex concerns.

Investors shrugged off the results of a private survey that showed China's factory activity expanded at a slower pace for the first time since July. According to the official gauge, manufacturing activity returned to contraction in October.

Japanese markets ended slightly lower following Wall Street's technology sell-off on Friday. The Nikkei average dropped 0.33 percent to 63,081.66 while the broader Topix index settled 0.88 percent lower at 3,930.38.

Kioxia Holdings plummeted 15.8 percent after the memory maker issued a cautious outlook, raising concerns that the explosive growth driven by artificial intelligence may be levelling off. In contrast, Tokyo Electron and Panasonic both jumped over 5 percent after upbeat profit forecasts.

The yen was broadly lower after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said authorities are prepared to respond against disorderly currency moves.

Seoul stocks reversed course to end sharply higher, buoyed by institutional buying and a rebound in semiconductor stocks as data showed South Korea's exports surged 93.7 percent year-on-year to a record $115.3 billion in October.

The Kospi index rallied 2.24 percent to 5,859.08. SK Square soared 5.9 percent, SK Hynix climbed 3.8 percent and Samsung Electronics rose 1.8 percent despite a rout in U.S. semiconductor stocks on Friday.

Australian markets ended lower ahead of an expected 25-bps interest rate hike at the RBA's Nov 2-3 meeting, which would be the fifth hike this year. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.58 percent to 8,856.50, dragged down by miners. The broader All Ordinaries index ended down 0.53 percent at 8,977.20.

Across the Tasman, New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX-50 index fell 0.71 percent to 13,698.63, snapping a three-day winning streak.

U.S. stocks slumped on Friday as a sell-off in tech and artificial intelligence stocks worsened amid concerns that massive AI spending may not deliver the returns that investors expect.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.9 percent and the S&P 500 fell 1.8 percent, each suffering their worst day since June, following disappointing quarterly results from Intel and Amazon. The narrower Dow lost 1.1 percent.