Oil prices climb further, while Asian shares are mixed

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BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia, while oil prices advanced further on Tuesday after jumping the day before due to uncertainty over when the Strait of Hormuz could reopen and get the global flow of crude going again.

U.S. futures edged lower.

Brent crude oil gained 1.5% to $89.01 a barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude picked up 1.7% to $83.54 a barrel.

Brent surged 5% on Monday. It swung between $72 and $102 last month as hopes rose and fell that the United States and Iran could reach an agreement that would allow oil tankers to freely exit the Middle East again to deliver crude worldwide.

Stocks wavered in Asia after the U.S. market edged away from its all-time highs.

South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7% to 6,345.53 as shares in market heavyweight Samsung Electronics jumped 4.1%. Memory chipmaker SK Hynix advanced 0.4%.

The wild swings of recent weeks, driven by waxing and waning hopes for a lasting boost to corporate profits from artificial intelligence, have abated in the past several days.

“Broadly, for the Korean memory chipmakers, the past year’s chip mania could well be over, even though Korean chipmakers will continue to benefit from the massive AI buildout,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, said in a commentary.

Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng lost 1% to 25,677.11, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.9% to 3,932.93.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2% higher to 9,250.60 after the Reserve Bank of Australia opted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.35%.

Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.4% and the Sensex in India shed 0.6%.

On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% from its record set on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%.

The recent rally, powered by soaring profits for U.S. companies, has slowed. Reports are on track to show earnings per share leaped 50% in the spring from a year earlier for companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet. That would be the best growth since five years ago, when the economy was roaring out of the chasm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Berkshire Hathaway, famous for buying stocks at what it considers low prices, gained 1.5%. It is one of the latest companies to deliver a stronger profit for the last quarter than analysts expected.

MarineMax jumped 46.1% after the retailer, marina operator and superyacht services provider said it agreed to sell itself for about $1.5 billion in cash to a portfolio company of Blackstone.

Varex Imaging leaped 48.8% after Teledyne Technologies said it would buy the maker of X-ray imaging components for $18.90 per share in cash.

But Intel helped offset such gains and fell 4.1% after saying it may sell $15 billion of its stock. Such a move would dilute the ownership stakes of shareholders, and Intel said it would likely use the cash for investments to take advantage of the huge spending underway on AI technology.

The main event for Wall Street this week will likely be Wednesday’s update on inflation in July. Economists expect it slowed to 3.4% from 3.5% in June, and that would relieve pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Higher rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy by making it more expensive for U.S. households and companies to borrow money. They would also undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

In other dealings early Tuesday, the U.S. dollar fell to 159.20 Japanese yen from 159.30 yen. It has been inching higher despite a recent rate intervention in the markets by Japan and the U.S. to help raise the yen's value against the dollar.

The euro fell to $1.1536 from $1.1544.

The price of gold, often used as a hedge against risk in times of uncertainty, edged up 0.1% to $4,425.50 an ounce.