(Nov 9): Asian stocks opened mostly higher early Monday following gains in US equities, though advances were tempered by concern over an investigation into Nvidia Corp’s chief executive officer Jensen Huang.
Benchmark stock indexes rose in Japan and Australia after a gauge of US semiconductor shares jumped 4.2% on Friday as speculation about possible tighter Democratic party regulation of the artificial intelligence industry eased. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of equities gained 0.5%.
Equity-index futures for the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 gauges dropped after Nvidia’s board said it was launching an investigation into whether Huang had been targeted by a foreign espionage plot after he admitted to employees that he was unfaithful to his wife.
Brent oil declined 0.8% to around $97.50 a barrel as President Donald Trump said it’s “highly unlikely” he will order further strikes on Iran if progress is made in talks over its nuclear program and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported.
The dollar edged lower versus most of its Group-of-10 peers while the kiwi gained following a national election at the weekend. Bitcoin advanced early Monday, trading close to $75,000.
“The Nvidia honey trap will weigh on Asian markets to kick off the week,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets. “It just creates huge uncertainty over what happens over Nvidia which is one of, if not the biggest, AI company out there.”
The developments threaten to further dent already-fragile risk appetite after a rout in richly valued technology shares pushed Japanese and Taiwanese stocks into technical bear markets last week and sent a gauge of global equities to a six-month low. Investors are also assessing the US midterm results and their implications for fiscal policy, regulation and growth.
In Asia, Chinese consumer and producer price data Monday will offer the next read on the health of the world’s second-largest economy. Inflation may have picked up in October because of higher energy costs, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Attention now turns to US inflation data Tuesday for clues on the rate outlook, with traders assigning an almost 80% probability of a hike by year-end.
“History is awash with examples of what — ex post — look like reckless risk-taking, and the verdict on AI is still out,” Barclays strategists led by Themistoklis Fiotakis wrote in a note to clients. “That said, solid growth momentum and the likely extension of the CAPEX cycle without massive downward revisions make us inclined to buy any dip in the dollar.”
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