Asia stocks mixed amid Iran uncertainty; Nikkei, KOSPI slide from records in Stock News 02/06/2026 Asian stocks were a mixed bag on Tuesday as investors grappled with contrasting signals on the U.S.-Iran conflict, while Japanese and South Korean markets fell from record highs. Regional markets took a positive lead-in from Wall Street, which hit record highs overnight on persistent strength in chipmaking stocks. But this momentum was seen fading by early Tuesday, with S&P 500 Futures down 0.4% in Asian trade. Mixed signals on the Iran conflict also weighed, especially after a report late-Monday said Tehran had stopped communicating with the U.S. through mediators. But U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that talks remained ongoing and that he expected a deal in the next week. Japan, S.Korea lag as chip rally cools Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI were the worst performers in Asia, with both indexes falling about 2% each from record highs. Chipmakers and tech shares, which had driven a bulk of recent gains in the two, were the largest weights on the indexes on Tuesday. Chip stocks in particular faced profit-taking after a stellar rally through May on optimism over artificial intelligence. Market darling Nvidia’s unveiling of more AI products on Monday added to this rally. South Korean markets were spooked by a stronger-than-expected consumer inflation reading for May. CPI inflation hit a 26-month high in May, ramping up bets that the Bank of Korea will hike interest rates later this year. Hong Kong buoyed by tech, Asia stocks mixed Hong Kong was an outlier on Tuesday, with the Hang Seng index up 0.8% on gains in some heavyweight tech shares. BYD (HK:1211) was among the top boosts to the index after the electric vehicle maker clocked its first monthly sales increase in eight months. The stock rose nearly 5%. Tencent (HK:0700) surged nearly 8% on a Financial Times report that it planned to launch an embedded AI agent for its WeChat application. Other Asian