Following a surge in U.S. tech stocks that helped Wall Street recover the majority of its losses from earlier in the week and sent the Nasdaq to an all-time high, Asian shares saw a majority of gains Thursday.
Following Nvidia’s overnight surge on Wall Street and the Bank of Korea’s decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged, South Korea’s Kospi increased 1% to 3,164.26.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.1% to 23,926.09, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.6% to 39,583.79.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 increased 0.6% to 8,589.70, while the Shanghai Composite index increased 0.4% to 3,505.58.
Oil prices fell, while the dollar lost ground against the euro and Japanese yen.
The S&P 500 saw its first rise of the week on Wall Street on Wednesday, rising 0.6%. Following a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report last week, the benchmark index is still close to its previous level.
There was a 0.5% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Technology stocks make up a large portion of the Nasdaq composite, which ended the day 0.9% higher. The rise was sufficient to push the index over the high it reached last Thursday.
Nvidia’s share price momentarily surpassed $164 per share in the early going, causing it to rise 1.8% and becoming the first publicly traded corporation to surpass $4 trillion in value. At the beginning of 2023, shares of the AI boom poster child were trading at about $14 a share.
With the window for negotiations extended to August 1, the tech rally coincided with Wall Street’s ongoing assessment of President Donald Trump’s renewed push this week to use threats of higher tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in an attempt to secure new trade agreements with nations around the world.
Benchmark U.S. crude dropped 6 cents to $68.32 a barrel in other transactions on Thursday. The global benchmark, Brent crude, dropped 8 cents to $70.14 a barrel.
The value of the dollar had dropped from 146.26 Japanese yen to 146.21 yen. From $1.1723, the euro increased to $1.1736.
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Alex Veiga, an AP Business Writer, made a contribution.
