- Japan’s Nikkei rose 3.45% and Taiwan’s Taiex added 5.72% on Monday.
- Nvidia’s board launched an independent probe into its CEO Jensen Huang’s affair.
- Brent crude hovered near $97 after its steepest weekly fall since April 2020.
Asian equities rose on Monday as a bounce on Wall Street helped the region recover part of last week’s heavy losses, although an inquiry at Nvidia kept investors wary.
Taiwan led the way, with the Taiex jumping 5.33%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 3.45% and the broader Topix opened 2.82% higher. South Korea’s Kospi added 1.68%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged up 0.19%, and MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.8%, recovering part of last week’s 4.6% drop.
The rebound follows a brutal Friday, when the Kospi tumbled about 9%, the Nikkei lost roughly 6% and the Hang Seng fell more than 1%. That rout was set off by a $2.5 trillion sell-off on Wall Street the day before. Investors had dumped tech stocks on fears that Democratic control of Congress after the US midterms could slow the build-out of data centres behind the artificial intelligence boom.
Taiwan’s benchmark logged its heaviest weekly fall in two decades, Japanese and Taiwanese shares slipped into technical bear markets, and a global equity index touched a six-month low.
Wall Street Cues
US stocks recovered on Friday as fears of tighter AI regulation eased. A US semiconductor index jumped 4.2%, with Nvidia up 3% and Micron up 5%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were about 0.6% higher on Monday after dipping earlier.
China publishes consumer and producer price figures later on Monday, giving a fresh reading on the health of the world’s second-largest economy. Bloomberg Economics estimates that higher energy costs may have pushed October inflation up.
Nvidia Inquiry
The earlier dip followed news that Nvidia’s board had opened an independent investigation into chief executive Jensen Huang’s relationship with a woman accused of being a Chinese spy. The board said it has confidence in Huang and no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised. Huang has admitted the affair and said he let down his family, colleagues and shareholders.
Additionally, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is reportedly weighing advanced memory chip production.
Oil, Currencies and India
Brent crude traded near $97 a barrel after losing more than 16% last week, its steepest weekly decline since April 2020, while US crude hovered around $90.
President Donald Trump said further strikes on Iran are “highly unlikely” if talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and reopening the Strait of Hormuz progress. The yen fell 0.1% to 158.26 per dollar, and the offshore yuan held near 6.6708. In India, GIFT Nifty pointed to a muted open, and markets are closed on Tuesday for Diwali.
Bitcoin’s heaviest trading since 2024 has clustered near $80,000, which Mike McGlone said could act as a ceiling this month. He said the cryptocurrency’s failure to stay above that level after the US midterms may be a warning for other risk assets. Bitcoin price is currently trading at $74,500.
Related: What Would Bitcoin Look Like Without the Trump Effect?
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