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From the vantage point of Busan Tower in Yongdusan Park, the cityscape of Nampo-dong in Busan, South Korea unfolds in all its glory.
Image credit: Jungang Yan | Moment | Getty Images
Asian-Pacific stock markets mostly advanced on Tuesday, despite a downturn on Wall Street triggered by a wave of selling in the cryptocurrency sector.
On the preceding night, bitcoin suffered a significant drop of around 6%, falling below the $86,000 mark. This marked its most challenging day since March, exerting downward pressure on the broader stock market. The cryptocurrency has struggled to maintain its position above $90,000 after slipping below that threshold for the first time since April late last month. Stocks connected to the cryptocurrency sector, such as Coinbase and Strategy, also experienced declines during Monday’s trading session.
Meanwhile, stocks in the artificial intelligence sector, such as Broadcom and Super Micro Computer, saw declines of over 4% and 1%, respectively, suggesting continued profit-taking in the industry.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index opened with a gain of 0.54%, while the Topix index also rose, climbing 0.44%.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.02%, while the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.13%.
South Korea’s headline inflation in November rose 2.4% year on year, according to government data Tuesday, exceeding the 2.35% rise expected by economists in a Reuters poll. Core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food and energy, rose 2% from a year earlier.
The latest figure is unchanged from October’s inflation rate, supporting the case for the central bank to keep interest rates on hold. The Bank of Korea had kept rates unchanged at 2.5% for a fourth straight meeting last Thursday.
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 rose 0.12%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pointed to a higher open, trading at 26,219, against the index’s previous close of 26,033.26.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours after all three key benchmarks snapped five-day gain streaks.
Overnight, the S&P 500 lost 0.53% to end at 6,812.63, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.38% to finish at 23,275.92. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back by 427.09 points, or 0.9%, to settle at 47,289.33.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.