Asian markets mostly advanced on Thursday, driven by a surge in U.S. technology shares that pushed the Nasdaq to a record high, aiding Wall Street in recovering most of its losses from earlier in the week.
In South Korea, the Kospi increased by 1% to reach 3,164.26, buoyed by the Bank of Korea maintaining its interest rate and a rise in semiconductor stocks following Nvidia’s significant gains overnight on Wall Street.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 % to 39,583.78, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.1% to 23,926.09.
The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4% to 3,505.58 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.6% to 8,589.70.
The dollar weakened against the Japanese yen and euro and oil prices dropped.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 on Wall Street increased by 0.6%, marking its first gain of the week. The benchmark index remains close to the record it achieved last week after a U.S. jobs report exceeded expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5%. The Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, closed 0.9% higher. The gain was good enough to nudge the index past the record high it set last Thursday.
Nvidia rose 1.8% and became the first public company to exceed $4 trillion in value after its share price briefly topped $164 each in the early going. Shares in the AI boom poster child were going for around $14 per share at the start of 2023.
The tech rally came as Wall Street continued to weigh the latest developments in President Donald Trump’s renewed push this week to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe, with the window for negotiations extended to Aug. 1.
In other dealings on Thursday, benchmark U.S. crude lost 6 cents to $68.32 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 8 cents to $70.14 per barrel.
The dollar was trading at 146.21 Japanese yen, down from 146.26 yen. The euro rose to $1.1736 from $1.1723.
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AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed
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