Asian equities retreated on Friday, as concerns over the impact DeepSeek will have on the artificial intelligence market pressured South Korean chipmakers.
US futures climbed after robust results from Apple Inc. A gauge of the region’s shares halted a two-day gain, with SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. falling in delayed reaction to the selling of AI stocks, as the nation’s markets reopened after Lunar New Year holidays.
The former is a key supplier to Nvidia Corp., while Samsung’s pivotal chip division reported a smaller-than-expected profit.
Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan remain closed. The dollar rose against most of its Group-of-10 peers as President Donald Trump is poised to unleash his first wave of tariffs Saturday.
Treasuries saw selling, while Japanese yen erased early gains ahead of Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s appearance in parliament.
“There is lot more” recalibration to come in the AI trades, Gareth Nicholson, chief investment officer at Nomura Singapore Ltd. told Bloomberg Television.
“We will see more rotation and it makes us even more bullish, albeit we needed some steam to come out of the system to build a stronger momentum forward.”
