BANGKOK -- Asian shares slipped further on Thursday after declines for AI stocks dragged the U.S.market to its worst day in nearly a month.
Traders were waiting for an update later in the day on U.S.inflation, and on a decision Friday by Japan’s central bank on interest rates.
The Bank of Japan is expected to raise its key rate by 0.25 percentage point to tamp down price pressures, despite a contraction in the July-September quarter.Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1% to 49,001.50, with technology shares leading the decline.
Technology and telecoms giant SoftBank sank 4%.Computer chip maker Tokyo Electron lost 3.2% while chip testing equipment maker Advantest dropped 3.3%.
Honda Motor Corp.fell 2.2% after reports said it was suspending production at some plants in Japan and China due to shortages of computer chips.
South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.5% to 3,994.51, also pulled lower by selling of shares in electronics companies and automakers.LG Electronics declined 3.1%, while Samsung Electronics lost 0.3%.Chinese markets were mixed as Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3% to 25,385.93, while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.3% higher, to 3,880.49.In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 8,588.20.Later Thursday, the U.S.
government will report on inflation last month.Economists expect that report to show prices for U.S.
consumers continue to rise faster than anyone would like.On Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2% to 6,721.43 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.5% to 47,885.97.
The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.8% to 22,693.32.Slightly more stocks rose within the S&P 500 than fell, but they got drowned out by the drops for companies in the artificial-intelligence industry.The sector is being pressured by questions over whether Big Tech companies' share prices have shot too high, whether all the investment in AI will be profitable and productive enough to justify the costs, and by worries over stratospheric levels of debt some companies are ta...