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People watch the first sunrise of the new year from a footbridge overlooking the city skyline in Seoul on January 1, 2024.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets mostly climbed in choppy trade Thursday, breaking ranks with Wall Street after investors continued selling tech names like Nvidia and Oracle for a second straight day.
Nvidia slid almost 1%, continuing its declines from Tuesday as heightened fears about the potentially circular nature of the AI industry drew investor skepticism.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.24% up, as investors are watched Chinese automaker Chery Automobile’s debut on the index after its $1.2 billion IPO. Shares of Chery rose 11% to 34.16 Hong Kong dollars ($4.39) at the open, compared with its offer price of HK$30.75.
Separately, Xiaomi shares gained 1.85% after debuting a slew of new devices and appliances, including smartphones to take on South Korea’s Samsung.
On the mainland, China’s CSI 300 advanced 0.76%.
South Korea’s Kospi was just above the flatline, but the small-cap Kosdaq was down 0.49%. However, South Korean defense stocks continued to rise, with major players like Korea Aerospace up 0.66%, and Poongsan 4% higher.
Internet firm Naver was one of the leaders on the Kospi, gaining over 7% after it announced an investment into health startup GravityLabs early Thursday.
Taiwan’s Taiex was down 0.33%, with heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company down 1.12%. This comes after Bloomberg reported that chip giant Intel is seeking an investment from Apple.
Apple had previously used Intel chips in many of its personal computing devices, but switched to TSMC when it launched its M1 chip in 2020. The report however, said that Apple is unlikely to shift back to Intel chips.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.2%, while the broad based Topix gained 0.43%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 reversed course and added 0.21%.
U.S. stock futures were little changed as investors awaited Thursday’s release of weekly jobless claims data, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy moves amid increasing concerns about a weakening labor market and rising layoffs.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 dropped 0.28% to end at 6,637.97, while the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.34% to settle at 22,497.86.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.37%, to finish at 46,121.28.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
