HONG KONG (AP) 鈥� Asian stocks advanced Friday, helped by buying of technology-related shares, while oil prices slipped as traders watched for developments in the Iran .
U.S. futures edged lower.
Tensions between Iran and the U.S. escalated this week after President Donald Trump said the Iran war ceasefire agreement was 鈥渙ver,鈥� as the United States and Iran .
South Korea鈥檚 Kospi gained 2.5% to 7,475.94, recovering some of its losses from earlier in the week. Shares in memory chipmaker SK Hynix, whose debut on the Nasdaq in New York is set for Friday, climbed 2.2% in Seoul.
Tokyo鈥檚 Nikkei 225 rose 1.9% to 69,030.35. SoftBank Group, a key investor in OpenAI, jumped 10.5%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 4%.
Hong Kong鈥檚 Hang Seng traded 1.8% higher at 24,455.01 and the Shanghai Composite index erased earlier losses to fall 0.5% to 4,017.50.
Australia鈥檚 S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 8,806.00.
India鈥檚 Sensex added 0.9%.
Oil prices yo-yoed again on Friday as global oil supplies remained under pressure due to a limited numbers of vessels able to cross the , a crucial waterway for energy transport.
Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.3% to $76.07 per barrel. It was trading near $72 a barrel before the war began in late February.
Benchmark U.S. crude shed 0.3% to $71.89 a barrel.
On Thursday, Wall Street鈥檚 benchmark S&P 500 index rose 0.8% to 7,543.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% to 52,487.41, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3% to 26,206.89.
Semiconductors stocks led gains. Micron Technology jumped 4.5% after the memory chipmaker said it would increase its U.S. investments, citing 鈥渟urging demand for memory in the AI era.鈥�
Shares of AMD, or Advanced Micro Devices, surged 5.7%. Marvell Technology rose 5%, while ON Semiconductor added 4.4%.
In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 161.56 Japanese yen from 162.37 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1444, up from $1.1430.
The yen gained against the dollar after Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told a parliamentary committee that the government plans to encourage big pension funds to invest more in domestic, yen-denominated assets.
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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
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