Asian Markets Edge Higher as Wall Street Holds Near Record Highs
Asian shares posted modest gains on Wednesday, following a choppy session in the U.S. that left Wall Street benchmarks just shy of record levels.
In premarket trading, U.S. stocks nudged higher as investors looked ahead to earnings from Nvidia, due after the New York close. The semiconductor giant has become the bellwether for the artificial intelligence trade, and its quarterly results are widely expected to reveal whether markets are being fuelled by genuine technological momentum or overhyped speculation.
Across Asia, markets mostly advanced:
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Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 42,522.97.
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South Korea’s Kospi inched up just over a point to 3,181.31.
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added less than 0.1% to 25,541.43.
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China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.3% to 3,881.07.
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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.1% higher at 8,948.30.
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Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 0.7%, while Thailand’s SET rose 0.4%.
Indian markets were closed for a public holiday, coinciding with the start of 50% U.S. tariffs on exports. The measures, introduced by Donald Trump, are expected to hit labour-intensive sectors such as textiles particularly hard.
On Wall Street, all three major indexes finished Tuesday slightly higher after fluctuating between gains and losses throughout the day.
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The S&P 500 added 0.4% to 6,465.94.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 45,418.07.
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The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.4% to 21,544.27.
In fixed income markets, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note eased to 4.268%, down from 4.301% on Monday.
