Asia shares wobble, oil prices climb and gold makes a comeback

Asian stocks were on shaky ground on Wednesday, following steep losses in US and European equities on fears that advancements in artificial intelligence could supplant traditional software. Oil prices climbed after the US shot down an Iranian drone and armed boats approached a U.S.-flagged vessel in a key waterway, while precious metals found a firmer footing after a recent rout. A selloff among U.S. and European data analytics, professional services and software companies deepened after Anthropic’s launch of plug-ins for its Claude Cowork agent on Friday sparked worries of an AI-fuelled disruption to those industries. Selling pressure was, however, less acute in Asia, given the region’s historical dominance in hardware manufacturing.