Investing.com– Asian stocks fell on Monday as concerns over the sustainability of AI spending weighed on semiconductor stocks, while investors braced for a busy week in terms of corporate earnings and central bank decisions.
Wall Street ended lower Friday amid rising energy prices and AI-related business concerns.
U.S. stock index futures were mixed in Asian trading by 0645 GMT, with technology stocks slightly lower.
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Asian chip stocks fall as key tech profits loom
That of Japan fell by 0.8%, while that of the rest rose slightly by 0.2%. and fell more than 3.5% each.
South Korea’s benchmark index ended down 1.5%, with shares down 1.2%.
In China, the blue-chip stock edged down 0.3%, while trading flat.
Hong Kong’s rose 0.4%, but most regional chipmakers were in negative territory. shares slipped 2.6%, while they fell more than 5%.
The weakness follows another selloff in U.S. technology stocks on Friday, as investors questioned whether huge investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure would generate sufficient returns.
Investors are awaiting quarterly results from major U.S. technology companies, including , and , to prove that increased spending on data centers and computing capacity is translating into sustainable revenue and profit growth.
Asia is also entering one of its busiest earnings weeks, with about 550 of the roughly 1,200 companies in the MSCI Asia Pacific index expected to report results, according to Bloomberg data. South Korean memory chip makers and Samsung Electronics will be one of the targeted companies.
Central bank meetings scheduled; oil remains high
Elsewhere, India fell 0.1%, while Singapore’s fell 0.3%.
Australia finished up 0.2%, while New Zealand finished down 0.1%.
The US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are all expected to announce their policy decisions this week.
The Fed is widely expected to leave rates unchanged, but investors will scrutinize its forecasts for clues about the outlook for borrowing costs, especially as high oil prices threaten to complicate the inflation outlook.
New Zealand’s central bank is expected to raise rates on Wednesday.
The Bank of Japan is largely expected to keep its key rate unchanged at 1.25% following its increase in September.
Oil prices eased on Monday after hitting a six-month high last week, limiting some losses in stocks. had climbed 6.2% last week as attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants in Saudi Arabia raised concerns about supply disruptions.
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