By Utkarsh Hathi

July 14 (Reuters) - Emerging-market stocks were mixed on Tuesday as the latest escalation between the United States and Iran showed no signs of cooling, sending oil prices higher, while currencies were subdued with the dollar holding firm ahead of U.S. inflation data.

Oil prices hit their highest in four weeks, adding to uncertainty around inflation and global economic growth, after President Donald Trump said the U.S. was reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping and would collect a 20% fee on cargo passing through the Strait of Hormuz. O/R

"Short-term momentum is swinging back in favour of the dollar as the FX market is finally starting to take the Gulf re-escalation more seriously...still, both oil and the USD are showing reluctance to fully price back in another supply shock," said Francesco Pesole, FX strategist at ING.

Taiwan's tech-heavy benchmark .TWII declined 1.4%. South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 marked a near 30% drop from last month's record high, before settling marginally above Monday's near 11-week low.

Chinese stocks .CSI300 rose 2.2% after data showed exports surged in June, buoyed by orders for chips and computing power to fuel the global AI boom.

In emerging Europe, Polish blue-chip stocks .WIG20 fell 0.4%, while Romania's .BETI and Hungary's .BUX indexes gained 0.3% each.

The broader MSCI global EM stocks index .MSCIEF was flat on the day, as was the currencies gauge .MIEM00000CUS.

Investors' appetite for AI has driven strong flows into Asia's tech-heavy equity markets, making them vulnerable to sharp swings, as concerns over the sustainability of the rally trigger periodic bouts of profit-taking.

The dollar index =USD held firm ahead of U.S. inflation data that is likely to provide insights on how price pressures stemming from the Iran conflict are seeping into the economy, and influence expectations of how the Federal Reserve will approach monetary policy.

ING's Pesole said that Fed commentary remained crucial as reduced guidance under new Chair Kevin Warsh, combined with a hawkish shift at the last meeting, could give markets room to speculate more aggressively on rate hikes.

South Africa's rand ZAR= traded 0.1% lower, while the country's stocks .JTOPI declined 0.9%. Turkey's lira was little changed.

Most emerging European currencies also lost ground against the euro, with the Polish zloty PLN= down 0.3%, and Hungarian forint HUF= falling 0.7%.

In a sign of continued investor appetite for developing markets, British asset manager Ashmore ASHM.L beat net inflow expectations as investors continued to allocate capital to higher-yielding emerging market assets despite geopolitical uncertainty.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** South Korea central bank to raise rates for first time in over three years on July 16: Reuters poll

** South Korea forecasts 2026 economic growth at 5-year high on AI chip boom

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets nTOPEMRG

For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see CEE/

For TURKISH market report, see .IS

For RUSSIAN market report, see RU/RUB