Stocks Fluctuate, SK Hynix Record Profit Quarter

Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific. Stocks and crude oil swung at the open in a nervous start to trading in Asia, as lingering concerns about the war in Iran clashed with strong corporate earnings that are helping steady investor sentiment. We spoke to Mark Cranfield, Bloomberg's MLIV Strategist. Plus -  SK Hynix Inc. reported a five-fold jump in quarterly profit and reiterated plans to ratchet up its capex "significantly" this year, underscoring surging prices of memory chips that underpin global artificial intelligence development. The Korean chipmaker is riding an AI spending boom that's reshaping the memory sector and offsetting fears around supply chain disruptions stemming from war in the Middle East. The outperformance comes as investors debate whether the advent of AI is igniting a super-cycle of demand that will help SK Hynix and its rivals break a decades-old cycle of boom and bust. We heard from Tom Kang, Counterpoint Research Director. He spoke to Bloomberg's Paul Allen and Haidi Stroud-Watts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.