World shares are mixed after AI worries drag Wall Street tech stocks
lower
[December 18, 2025] By
ELAINE KURTENBACH
BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were mixed 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.
Germany's DAX edged 0.2% higher to 24,007.33, while the CAC 40 in Paris
gained 0.4% to 8,114.30. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 9,800.00.
The future for the S&P 500 gained 0.3%, while that for the Dow Jones
Industrial Average inched up 0.1%.
In Asian trading, 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. Hong Kong's Hang Seng bounced back from
early losses to gain 0.1%, closing at 25,498.13. The Shanghai Composite
index edged 0.2% higher, to 3,876.37.
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% and the Dow dipped 0.5%. The Nasdaq
composite dropped 1.8%.
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 taking
on to pay for it all.
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Dealers work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock
Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between
U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in
Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
 Broadcom dropped 4.5%, Oracle fell
5.4% and CoreWeave sank 7.1%. Nvidia, the chip company that’s become
Wall Street’s most influential stock because of its tremendous size,
fell 3.8% and was the day's heaviest weight on the S&P 500.
Power companies that jumped earlier in the year on expectations for
stronger demand from electricity-sucking data centers also lost some
of their shine. Constellation Energy fell 6.7%.
On the winning side of Wall Street were oil companies, after
President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil
tankers” into Venezuela.
That sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude higher by
1.2% to $55.94. just a day after it sank to its lowest level since
2021.
Early Thursday, U.S. crude was up 12 cents at $55.93 per barrel.
Brent crude, the international standard, gained 8 cents to $59.76
per barrel. It had climbed 1.3% on Wednesday.
Oil prices have been falling for most of this year on expectations
that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the
world’s demand.
Netflix added 0.2% after Warner Bros. Discovery’s board said it
still recommends shareholders approve a buyout offer from the
streaming giant for its Warner Bros. business, rather than a
competing hostile bid from Paramount Skydance for the entire
company.
Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2.4%, while Paramount Skydance dropped
5.4%.
In other dealings early Thursday, the U.S. dollar rose to 155.92
Japanese yen from 155.70 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1727 from
$1.1743.
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