Sawt Falasteen - Wall Street gets small boost from SK hynix debut

The supplier of advanced memory chips used for AI technology raised $26.5 billion for its mega US listing Friday, in one of the world's biggest-ever stock sales.

The chipmaker set a price of $149 for each American depositary share -- slightly more than its Seoul closing price Thursday -- ahead of its debut on the Nasdaq.

That meant it had raised $26.5 billion, the most for a US listing by a foreign firm.

The US listing surged nearly 13 percent in its first day of trading, closing at $168.

SK hynix, along with Samsung and Micron, is a heavyweight in the global market for the high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers alongside other data-crunching semiconductors.

The South Korean company "got a warm reception, lessening some of the concerns around artificial intelligence and the questions that investors are having about the cyclicality of the semiconductor business and the return on investment," Angelo Kourkafas, from Edward Jones, told AFP.

The Nasdaq's composite index dipped at the start of trading and spent most of the morning in the red, and was flat as SK hynix shares began to trade, before heading into the green.

South Korea led gains in Asia, while European markets ended the day mixed.

Shares in Meta shot up six percent after the Facebook and Intagram-parent launched Muse Spark 1.1, an AI model for computer coders, putting it in more direct competition with leaders OpenAI and Anthropic.

British mobile phone giant Vodafone saw its share price surge 12.6 percent, topping London's FTSE 100 index, after French tycoon Xavier Niel was set to pay 5.1 billion euros ($5.8 billion) to become the group's largest shareholder.

On the second-tier FTSE 250, EasyJet shares soared 14.1 percent after US investor Apollo swooped in with a $7.7-billion takeover offer for the British no-frills airline.

Oil prices retreated after spiking earlier in the week as the United States and Iran exchanged fire again.

"As we move to the end of the week, volatility has retreated and fears about an escalation in tensions between the US and Iran appear overdone," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.

"If we do not return to a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the impact from the war in the Middle East should not leave a lasting scar on the global economy," she added.

- Key figures around 2000 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 52,637.01 points (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.4 percent at 7,575.39 (close)

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 26,281.61 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.2 percent at 10,497.29 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 at 8,338.97 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 25,067.09 (close)

Seoul - Kospi: UP 2.5 percent at 7,475.94 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.2 percent at 68,557.73 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.6 percent at 24,175.12 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 1.0 percent at 3,996.16 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1415 from $1.1430 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3397 from $1.3410

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 161.72 yen from 162.38 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.20 pence from 85.23 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $76.01 a barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.9 percent at $71.41 a barrel

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST