Asian stocks declined on Friday as investors grappled with a pullback in artificial-intelligence shares and hopes for a diplomatic resolution to tensions in the Middle East.
Shares in South Korea fell over 4%, sending the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index lower 0.8%. Equity-index futures for Wall Street gauges also declined as investors rotated out of chipmakers and into a broader range of sectors, helping lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record high. Contracts for the Nasdaq 100 Index fell 0.7% after the underlying gauge dropped for a second day Thursday.
