Momentum behind artificial intelligence stocks is cooling as investor enthusiasm over Meta Platforms Inc.'s personal assistant gives way to a more guarded stance, signaling that traders remain hesitant to chase gains following recent market turbulence.

During Asian trading hours, South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix gave back earlier advances, while semiconductor shares stalled in pre-market trading across Europe and the United States. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbed 4.3% on Monday, with Meta surging 11%—its biggest one-day jump since April of last year.

Oil prices ticked higher on expectations of potential supply disruptions in the Middle East, further dampening risk appetite. This underscores how vulnerable AI-linked trades remain to broader macroeconomic uncertainties. The earlier boost to chip stocks came after reports that Meta's Muse AI agent rocketed to the top of Apple's free app chart shortly after its launch earlier this month.

"Given yesterday's gains, a modest pullback makes sense, but in my view the uptrend is still intact," said David Kruk, head of trading at Paris-based La Financiere de l'Echiquier. With Brent crude briefly surpassing $101 per barrel, attention has shifted back to inflationary risks tied to elevated energy costs.

In Europe, UBS's basket of semiconductor stocks hovered between slight gains and losses, while Nvidia dipped less than 1% in pre-market trading in the United States. Across Asia, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix relinquished roughly 3.5% of their earlier advances, and the Kospi index closed nearly flat, up just 0.2%.