Tech jitters lead stocks lower, oil surges then slides

Technology firms led losses across sluggish stock markets Tuesday on growing fears about the AI investment boom ahead of earnings reports from major companies in the sector.

Sentiment about tech stocks was also hit by news that "multiple" cloud services that used Google's data centre based in London were experiencing serious network disruptions, affecting in particular UK banks.

Oil prices initially surged on increased fears of supply disruptions heading into the northern hemisphere winter, but later pulled back on indications of further talks between Iran and the US.

Benchmark international contract Brent North Sea crude and its US counterpart WTI both briefly climbed above $110 per barrel.

Asian equity markets ended the day with losses.

"Last night's tech recovery on Wall Street didn't carry over into Asian markets with AI-related names in the region facing renewed pressure on their share prices," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould

Seoul and Tokyo again bore the brunt of the selling as chip giants SK hynix, Samsung and Kioxia took another beating owing to a sharp exit from a sector that saw blistering gains in the first half of this year.

South Korea's Kospi stocks index sank nearly four percent, with SK hynix off 4.2 percent and Samsung down three percent.

Further weighing on sentiment was the data centre infrastructure firm Elice, whose shares collapsed more than 30 percent on their trading debut.

The negative sentiment carried over to equity trading in Europe.

The euro rose against the dollar but remained under pressure as violent cost-of-living protests in France and Italy have pushed up government bond yields.

The yield on France's 10-year government bond rose to 4.94 percent Tuesday, more than 150 basis points above the comparable German government bond, considered the European benchmark of creditworthiness.

The resulting spread between the two yields is the highest since the closing levels of January 2012, when the eurozone was in the midst of a credit crisis that required market interventions by the European Central Bank to keep borrowing costs from spiralling.

Wall Street managed to clamber into positive territory on Tuesday despite continued volatility in artificial intelligence shares as investors digested mixed earnings from industrial companies.

"We're back to having the same concerns that we had before," said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers, referring to worries about AI profitability, though he said traders were "still conditioned to buy every dip".