Asian stocks opened mostly higher on Monday November 9, as a rebound in US equities offset worries over an investigation into Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.04%, while the Topix gained 2.82% and Taiwan’s TAIEX advanced 2.84%. The Kospi in South Korea slipped 0.25%. Hang Seng futures rose 0.6%.
In India, GIFT Nifty pointed to a muted start. Participation may stay thin because of the long Diwali weekend, with markets shut on Tuesday. Atul Suri, chief executive of Marathon Trends PMS, told CNBC-TV18 on Sunday during the Muhurat session that he remains bullish and retains his Nifty target of 30,800.
He called the latest rally largely a short-covering move rather than the start of a sustained bull market, and said investors should look for stocks making fresh 52-week highs.
As for major currency markets in the region, the Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 158.26 per dollar, and the offshore yuan held near 6.6708.
Wall Street set the tone on Friday after a gauge of US semiconductor shares jumped 4.2% as speculation eased that the Democratic Party would tighten regulation of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The Nasdaq staged a small recovery, led by Nvidia and Micron, which gained 3% and 5% respectively.
Nvidia’s board had launched an independent investigation into Huang’s relationship with a woman whom intelligence agencies describe as a Chinese spy. The New York Times and the Financial Times reported that the woman, Alice Huang, is linked to the cloud company Megaspeed, an existing Nvidia customer.
Both publications said she passed information to China, citing concerns raised by intelligence agencies. Huang admitted the affair in an emailed statement and said he had let down his family, his colleagues and Nvidia’s shareholders.
Nasdaq futures fell as much as 150 points on Sunday evening in the US as trading resumed. The Dow futures gained 150 points, while S&P 500 futures hovered just below the flat line. The Dow had lost more than 2,000 points on Thursday and Friday after the US midterm elections delivered a Democratic sweep of the House and the Senate.
The Nvidia probe adds pressure to already fragile risk appetite as a rout in richly valued technology shares last week pushed Japanese and Taiwanese stocks into technical bear markets and sent a global equity gauge to a six-month low. Investors also seemed to be weighing the midterm results for their impact on fiscal policy, regulation and growth.
Separately, The Information reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing was considering advanced memory chip manufacturing, which would expand its role in the AI hardware supply chain.
Oil meanwhile extended its slide on Monday after its steepest weekly decline since April 2020. Brent crude fell below $98 a barrel to trade at $97.42 in early Asian hours, building on a loss of more than 16% last week. US West Texas Intermediate traded near $90.
Traders also seemed to be weighing diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran conflict against a fresh round of attacks across West Asia.
CNN reported that US President Donald Trump called further strikes on Iran “highly unlikely” if talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz make progress.
With Agency Inputs
Asia markets rise as Japan, Taiwan stocks rally; Nvidia probe keeps investors cautious