Tech Losses Weigh on Global Markets    11/03 04:50

   World shares fell and U.S. futures also declined Tuesday as investors 
awaited the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections.

   HONG KONG (AP) -- World shares fell and U.S. futures also declined Tuesday 
as investors awaited the outcome of the U.S. midterm elections.

   Oil prices climbed after the United States conducted defensive strikes on 
some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

   The outcome of Tuesday's vote could fundamentally reshape U.S. President 
Donald Trump's final two years in the White House. Republicans and Democrats 
are battling for control of Congress and key governors' offices at a time of 
widespread disaffection over high prices.

   In early European trading, the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.4% to 8,007.84, 
Britain's FTSE 100 slid 0.3% to 10,726.55, and Germany's DAX declined 0.9% to 
25,760.67.

   The future for the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and that for the Dow Jones 
Industrial Average fell 0.6%.

   In Asia, South Korea's benchmark Kospi fell 4% to 5,626.08. Memory chipmaker 
SK Hynix dropped 5.7% and Samsung Electronics declined 4%, giving up Monday's 
gains.

   Markets in Tokyo were closed for a holiday.

   In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng added 0.6% to 23,525.97.

   The Shanghai Composite index retreated 0.8% to 3,608.10, near its lowest 
level in more than a year. Gains from market-supporting measures announced 
Monday were short-lived.

   Shares of big banks were mostly lower after the Chinese central bank 
announced that it was raising the foreign exchange reserve requirement ratio 
for financial institutions to 6% from 4%.

   Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3% to 8,880.50. The Reserve Bank of Australia 
raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 4.85%, the 
highest the cash rate has been since it stood at 5.25% in December 2008.

   It was the fifth rate hike this year.

   Taiwan's Taiex slid 3.8%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. sank 1.9% 
and chip designer Mediatek plunged 7.6%.

   India's Sensex climbed 1.3%.

   On Monday, the S&P 500 sank 0.5%, erasing a 1.1% gain earlier in the day. 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite fell 
1.1%.

   The mixed performance for indexes came even though the majority of stocks 
within the S&P 500 climbed. They benefited from a recent 7.6% drop in the price 
of a barrel of Brent crude, which closed at $104.77. It's the latest yo-yo move 
for oil prices on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will end.

   So have stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry, which have been 
shaky for months amid criticism that they have surged too high and are in a 
bubble. Worries are growing that all the hundreds of billions of dollars Big 
Tech companies are pouring into AI data centers won't yield enough productivity 
and profit to make the investments worth it.

   The latest profit reports from Alphabet and other Big Tech companies also 
showed how AI may be dragging on their own businesses. Google's parent company 
burned through more cash during the latest quarter, as measured by something 
called free cash flow, and it reported slower-than-expected growth in its 
search business.

   Expectations are high for all kinds of companies to continue to deliver big 
gains in profits as the U.S. economy keeps chugging along, even with high 
inflation and interest rates. That helped send the S&P 500 to its record last 
month.

   In other dealings Tuesday, the price of Brent crude, the international 
standard, climbed 1.7% to $106.58 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 1.5% 
to $97.88 per barrel.

   The U.S. dollar fell to 157.86 Japanese yen from 157.95 yen. The euro rose 
to $1.1202 from $1.1188.