World Shares Mixed Thursday            12/18 05:36

   World shares were mixed on Thursday after declines for AI stocks dragged the 
U.S. market to its worst day in nearly a month.

   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.

   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.