Seoul once again led losses on a mixed day in Asian stocks Tuesday as chip giant Samsung tumbled despite an eye-watering rise in profit, stoking fears that the record-breaking, AI-fuelled rally may have reached the end of the road.
Investors were unable to take over the baton from their counterparts on Wall Street, where all three main indexes reopened after a long weekend to rally on the back of gains in market heavyweights including Amazon and Apple.
The gains eased worries over a tech retreat over the past few weeks amid questions over whether the vast sums pumped into artificial intelligence will see suitable returns.
South Korean titan Samsung appeared to have answered some of those Tuesday as it said it expected to post a more than 1,800 percent jump in second-quarter operating profit thanks to sustained AI-driven demand for memory chips.
However, the company's shares tumbled around seven percent in early trade, dragging the Kospi index down five percent and deepening a rout that has hammered the market for the past two weeks.
The Kospi had more than doubled this year to a record high in June, but has shed around 20 percent since then.
The results come at the start of a much-anticipated earnings season that will be closely followed for an idea about firms' outlook for AI in light of the huge investment made in the sector.
"Samsung's preliminary second-quarter numbers were, on their face, spectacular," said Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.
"AI memory demand remains ferocious, supply remains tight, and the major memory makers are enjoying margins that would have looked implausible only a few years ago."
He said the market was now "priced for perfection. Good is no longer good enough. Even exceptional is not enough".
"Investors are not judging the last quarter; they are judging whether the next several quarters can still exceed an earnings curve that has already been pulled almost vertically higher."
And Petra Capital Management's Albert Yong said the plunge suggests "investors might have already priced in solid results and are increasingly focused on the longer-term trajectory of the memory cycle".
There were also losses in Tokyo -- another tech-heavy market -- Shanghai and Wellington.
But there were gains in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta. Sydney was barely moved.
Oil prices edged up after British maritime security agency UKMTO said an "unknown projectile" struck and caused a fire on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
The incident occurred near one of the world's most important energy shipping routes, despite a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and ongoing efforts to secure a lasting peace agreement.
Traders are also awaiting the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting, hoping for fresh clues about its plans for monetary policy as it tries to battle elevated inflation.
