Global Markets: Asian stocks climb on AI momentum and oil gains

Asian equity markets closed higher on Wednesday, following a rally in U.S. stocks driven by artificial intelligence names.

South Korea’s Kospi index led regional gains, climbing 6.8% to finish at 6,023.73. The surge was fueled by SK Hynix, which jumped 11.4% to reach its highest level in two weeks. The memory chipmaker reported a record operating profit of 83.3 trillion won, equivalent to $62.8 billion, for the previous quarter. That figure represents a nearly seven-fold increase from the same period last year and exceeded market estimates. Samsung Electronics also performed strongly, rising 9.1% ahead of its earnings report scheduled for Thursday.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index gained 1.1% to close at 63,954.19. Kioxia Holdings, a semiconductor manufacturer, climbed 9.6% before its quarterly earnings announcement on Friday. Markets generally expected the Bank of Japan to leave its interest rate unchanged during its two-day policy meeting starting Thursday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index recovered 0.2% to 23,089.22, erasing earlier losses, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.5% to 3,666.50. Taiwan’s Taiex index advanced 2%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3% to reach 8,847.30.

India’s Sensex index fell 0.8%, but Jio Platforms, the country’s largest telecommunications company, surged 21% on its market debut. This followed the largest initial public offering in India’s history. In New Zealand, the Reserve Bank surprised analysts by holding its benchmark interest rate at 2.75%. The S&P/NZX 50 index edged 0.1% higher.

In the United States, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% on Tuesday, moving within 1.2% of its all-time high set earlier this month. The Nasdaq composite climbed 1.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1%. Although the majority of stocks in the S&P 500 declined, gains in influential AI stocks offset the losses. Investors had been concerned that high borrowing costs for data center construction and chip purchases threatened the sector's growth. Broadcom climbed 4% after announcing a $63 billion financing deal. Several Wall Street firms will help Anthropic access Broadcom’s XPU AI accelerators and networking solutions through this arrangement.

Nvidia added 0.9%, acting as one of the primary drivers for the S&P 500’s rise alongside Broadcom. CoreWeave, a cloud company that rents out AI chips purchased with borrowed capital, jumped 7.9%. Boeing fell 10.7% after reporting a larger quarterly loss than analysts had predicted. Consumer sentiment in the U.S. improved in October, contrary to expectations of further weakness amid high inflation. Treasury yields remained relatively steady ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision. The Fed raised rates last month for the first time in three years to combat inflation, but Wall Street expects it to hold rates steady this time. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.99% from 5.00%.

Oil prices increased on Wednesday. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.5% to $111.10 per barrel. U.S. benchmark crude gained 1.6% to $101.46 per barrel. In currency markets, the U.S. dollar slid to 157.85 Japanese yen from 157.91. The euro traded at $1.1118, down from $1.1127.