Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday as the Federal Reserve still warned against high inflation and US AI chip leader Nvidia released lower-than-expected earnings results.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 13.92 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,496.50 in the first 15 minutes of trading.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2 percent to 35,088.29, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ shed 0.6 percent to 14,199.98.

There have been expectations that the Fed is at the end of its hiking cycle and rate cuts are due in the first half of 2024. But the Fed minutes showed that officials have no intention to ease the monetary policy.

Nvidia was expected to release strong quarterly results due to growing demand for generative AI but failed to satisfy the high expectations of shareholders.

In Seoul, most large-cap stocks declined.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 1 percent, No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix decreased 1.2 percent, top carmaker Hyundai Motor dropped 1 percent, and leading car battery maker LG Energy Solution shed 0.8 percent.

Among gainers, Korea Aerospace Industries, the country's sole aircraft manufacturer, rose 0.9 percent; Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, jumped 6.5 percent; and the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. was up 0.3 percent.

The local currency was trading at 1,295.55 won against the US dollar, down 6.4 won from the previous session's close. (Yonhap)