[MARKET ANALYSIS] Asia-Pac stocks are ultimately mixed with chip stocks pressured after top AI CEOs called for a slowdown in AI development

APAC Stocks: Mixed Asia-Pac stocks are ultimately mixed after gradually improving from the initial risk-off mood seen at the start of the session, which had been triggered by AI-related selling after key industry executives called for a slowdown in AI development. There were also headwinds from the conflict in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia shut its East-West Pipeline following drone attacks last week, which threatens the loss of 4% of global supply, while Oman postponed for an indefinite period the Persian Gulf meeting on Monday, where Iran had planned to formally unveil a temporary shipping lane agreement for the Strait of Hormuz. ASX 200: +0.1% Index is kept afloat in range-bound trade amid resilience in defensives and the consumer sectors, while there were some comments from RBA Assistant Governor Hunter, who stated that Australian household spending is holding up okay and business investment is showing signs of strength, but also noted inflation remains above target. Nikkei 225: -0.8% Slumped at the open amid notable losses in Kioxia and with SoftBank dropping by double-digit percentages owing to its heavy AI exposure, although the index is well off today's worst levels amid mixed yields in Japan and with the TOPIX index in the green. KOSPI -2.4% Underperforms amid losses in semiconductor heavyweights, while today marks the start of the Korea Exchange extending trading hours with a new after-market session to allow stock trading until 8pm local time. Hang Seng & Shanghai Comp: Hang Seng +0.2% / Shanghai Comp +0.2% Chinese markets pared opening losses and returned into the green, but with upside capped ahead of tomorrow's activity data, while US President Trump said he is not worried about Chinese President Xi cancelling their planned summit after reports that Beijing informed Washington it will cancel the planned summit if any new arms sales to Taipei are approved. US Equity Futures: Lower Declined at the open with underperformance in the Emini Nasdaq 100 after Anthropic CEO Amodei called for the slowdown of AI development, while OpenAI CEO Altman and SpaceX's CEO Musk agreed with Amodei's view. European Equity Futures -0.3% Indicate a lower cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures down 0.3% after the cash market closed with gains of 0.9% on Friday.