Asian shares fell on Thursday as chipmakers stumbled ahead of results from bellwether TSMC, while bonds benefited from another benign reading on U.S. inflation that lessened the risk of an imminent rate hike.
Oil prices, however, kept climbing as hostilities heated up in the Middle East. Washington continued striking Iran after reimposing a naval blockade of its ports, while Tehran warned of an "existential war" with America. Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 0.6% to $85.45 a barrel, adding to this week's gain of 12%.
All eyes are on the quarterly earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC) 2330.TW, the world's largest manufacturer of advanced AI chips. The company is expected to notch a fifth consecutive quarter of record earnings, with a 59% surge in net profit for April-June.
However, investors are proving hard to please as shares of ASML ASML.AS, the world's dominant supplier of equipment needed to make high-tech computer chips, finished 0.4% lower even after it raised its 2026 sales forecasts and pledged a capacity boost.
"Seeing aggressive pullback in Memory/Hardware," Brian Heavey, an equity trader at JPMorgan, said in a note. "Don't think there's a smoking gun 'negative' headline driving semis/hardware selloff. I think just shows how high the bar is for semis earnings."
The selling spilled over to Asia. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MISX00000PUS slid 1.7% as South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 slumped 6.3% on weakness from Samsung 005930.KS, down 8%, and SK Hynix 000660.KS, down 11%.
Japan’s Nikkei .N225 dropped 3%. Taiwanese shares .TWII fell 0.5%, while China's Hang Seng Index .HSI gained 1.2%.
South Korea's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 3-1/2 years to 2.75% on Thursday to stabilise a slumping won and counter persistent inflationary pressure. The decision was largely as expected.
Wall Street gained overnight as investors rotated out of semiconductors into Magnificent Seven stocks and banks after robust earnings from major lenders, but Asia is more vulnerable to the chip sell-off given its heavier exposure to semiconductor stocks.
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