SYDNEY - Asian shares eased from record highs on ​Friday as hefty price hikes from Apple showed the downside of the boom in chip demand, while only the threat ‌of Japanese intervention kept the yen from hitting 40-year lows.

Brent crude futures slipped 0.5 percent to $74.89 a barrel, having bounced 2 percent from four-month lows overnight.

Nasdaq futures declined 0.6 percent in Asia. The Nasdaq swung lower overnight after Apple slid ​6.1 percent after announcing price hikes for iPads and MacBooks to counter surging memory and storage chip costs, wiping about $250 billion off its market value. Microsoft is raising prices for its Xbox gaming consoles by up to $150 worldwide.

That tempered investor enthusiasm about a blowout earnings ​report from chipmaker Micron this week, whose shares surged almost 16 percent overnight to a record high.

"Micron tells us where the profits are. Apple tells us ​where the inflation is," said Nigel Green, CEO at deVere Group, a financial advisory firm.

"The race to build AI infrastructure has become so intense that demand for advanced memory is outstripping supply," he said. "Apple's decision to raise prices is an early warning that inflation is finding a new route into the economy."

Analysts also say that month-end and ​quarter-end rebalancing flows might have contributed to the weakness and choppy prices in big tech companies, which have outperformed for much of the ​second quarter.

On Friday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.7 percent, bringing its weekly loss to 3.4 percent, having hit a record high just on Monday. It ‌was down 1.6 percent for the month but up a whopping 24 percent for the quarter.

Japan's Nikkei slumped 3 percent and was headed for a weekly drop of 1.3 percent. It has climbed 6 percent for the month and has surged 38 percent for the quarter.

South Korea's KOSPI dropped 3.5 percent and was down 5 percent for the week. It has surged a monstrous 70 percent in the second quarter.

Yen weak

In the currency markets, ​the yen teetered near its weakest ​level against the dollar in 40 years at 161.82, well beyond the 160 level that many see as a line in the sand for Japanese authorities.

It found little relief even as a US inflation reading met forecasts and traders trimmed bets for a rate ​hike from the Federal Reserve in September.

Separate data also showed the US economy grew faster than previously estimated ​in the first quarter thanks to a downward revision to imports, but consumer spending almost stalled, casting doubt on growth momentum in the second quarter.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback's strength against a basket of six major peers, held at 101.46, not far from its strongest level since May 2025. It has risen 2.6 percent this month.

Treasury yields ​were steady on Friday after slipping a little overnight. 2-year yields held at 4.1250 percent, ​having eased 2 basis points on Thursday, while ten-year yields were little changed at 4.4020 percent, having hit a nearly two-month low of 4.3627 percent in the previous session.

Precious metals have had a ​rough month, with spot gold down 11 percent to $4,020 an ounce and spot silver sliding 24 percent to $57.3 an ounce.