Currency traders react near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ahn Young-joon)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-05-12T04:18:58Z<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Asian shares traded mixed Tuesday as optimism encouraged by a record rally on Wall Street clashed with anxiety about surging oil prices and a possible AI bubble<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.6% to 62,828.07. South Korea\u2019s Kospi dropped 2.7% to 7,610.10, in what analysts are categorizing as fallout from overreliance on fraying AI hopes. <\/p>\n \u201cGlobal equities remain dangerously dependent on a tiny cluster of AI leaders, creating a rally structure that looks powerful on the surface but increasingly fragile underneath,\u201d said Stephen Innes, analyst with SPI Asset Management. <\/p>\n He believes South Korea may be among the first major economies that will undergo what he called \u201cthe political redistribution phase of the AI boom.\u201d <\/p>\n Australia\u2019s S&P\/ASX 200 dipped 0.4% to 8,670.70. Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng lost earlier gains and fell less than 0.1% to 26,395.36, while the Shanghai Composite lost 0.4% to 4,210.44. <\/p>\n Oil prices continued to rise, as the war with Iran<\/a><\/span> threatened to drag on<\/a><\/span>. Benchmark U.S. crude rose $1.57 to $99.64 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed $1.30 to $105.51 a barrel. <\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump described the U.S.-Iran ceasefire as on \u201clife support\u201d after rejecting Iran\u2019s latest proposal to end the war. That raises the stakes for Trump\u2019s trip this week to China<\/a><\/span>. China is the biggest buyer of Iran\u2019s sanctioned crude oil.<\/p>\n