(Updates prices before European open, adds quarterly milestones

for Asian stocks)

* Japan's Nikkei slumps over 4%, South Korea's KOSPI down 6%

* Selloff comes after big gains for the quarter to record

highs

* Nasdaq futures skid 1.3%, yen languishes near 40-year lows

* Oil falls towards four-month lows; gold down nearly 12%

this month

By Stella Qiu

SYDNEY, June 26 (Reuters) - Asian shares pulled back on

Friday after a stellar quarter, as Apple's ( AAPL ) hefty price hikes

revealed the downside of booming chip demand, while the threat

of Japanese intervention kept the yen from hitting 40-year

lows.

Oil prices fell toward their lowest in fourth months, with Brent

crude futures down 1.5% to $74.1 a barrel, as Saudi

Aramco resumed oil loading at its Ras Tanura terminal after a

halt of almost four months. More stranded oil tankers have

crossed the Strait of Hormuz with the help of military escorts,

although a cargo ship was hit by a projectile.

Nasdaq futures tumbled 1.3% in Asia, as investor

sentiment soured after a media report that OpenAI is considering

holding off on its public debut until next year. European

bourses were bracing for a lower open, with pan-region stock

futures off 0.8%.

Shares of Apple ( AAPL ) slid 6.1% overnight after the tech

giant announced steep price increases for iPads and MacBooks to

counter the surging cost of memory and storage chips. That wiped

about $250 billion off of its market value. Microsoft ( MSFT )

is raising prices for its Xbox gaming consoles by up to $150

worldwide.

The price increases tempered investor enthusiasm about a

blowout earnings report from chipmaker Micron this week,

whose shares surged almost 16% overnight to a record high.

Apple's ( AAPL ) price increases were a reflection of how "big tech may

at some point start to feel the pain of these higher component

costs, and that can become a broader ecosystem headwind," said

Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo.

"That is why markets are becoming more cautious. Higher input

costs, heavier capex needs and rising funding demands are making

investors more selective about AI exposure."

Analysts also said 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 3%, bringing its weekly loss to 4.4%,

as investors took profits from a 23% quarterly gain, the best

since 2009. It was down 2.8% for the month.

Japan's Nikkei slumped 4.2% and was headed for a

weekly drop of 2.7%%. It has climbed 4.5% for the month and

surged 35% for the quarter, the biggest quarterly gain in its

history.

South Korea's KOSPI was last down 5.8%, after

slumping as far as 8% earlier to triggering a circuit breaker.

It was down 7% for the week, but still managed a monstrous 66%

gain for the quarter, the best since 1998.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.7%, but it was down

8.5% for the quarter, marking the third straight quarter of

declines to be an outlier in the region.

YEN WEAK

In the currency markets, the yen teetered near its

weakest level against the dollar in 40 years at 161.60, well

beyond the 160 level that many see as a line in the sand for

Japanese authorities.

It found little relief even as a U.S. inflation reading met

forecasts and traders trimmed bets for a rate hike from the

Federal Reserve in September.

Separate data also showed the U.S. 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, slipped 0.1% to 101.36, but

remained not far from its strongest level since May 2025. It has

risen 0.6% this week.

Treasury yields slipped on Friday. 2-year yields

fell 2 basis points at 4.0942% to mark a fourth day of declines,

while ten-year yields eased 1 bps at 4.3804%, having

hit a nearly two-month low of 4.3627% in the previous

session.

Precious metals have had a rough month, with spot gold

down 11.5% to $4,011 an ounce and spot silver

sliding 24.5% to $56.7 an ounce.