By Fatma Younis
Asian stocks were mostly higher Wednesday after an AI-driven rally on Wall Street lifted sentiment, while oil prices edged up. South Korea's Kospi surged 5.6% to 5,952.41 and Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied 1.3% to 64,094.51, though Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7% to 23,041.32.
South Korean Chipmakers Lead Gains
SK Hynix jumped 7% after reporting a record quarterly operating profit of 83.3 trillion won ($62.8 billion), nearly seven times the year-earlier level. Samsung Electronics surged 8.5% ahead of its third-quarter earnings release Thursday.
Japanese and Regional Markets Advance
Semiconductor maker Kioxia Holdings climbed 9.6% before its Friday earnings report. Taiwan's Taiex rose 1.8% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4%. New Zealand's central bank kept its benchmark rate at 2.75%, surprising markets.
Wall Street AI Stocks Propel S&P 500
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% on Tuesday, pulling within 1.2% of its all-time high, led by AI-related shares. Broadcom climbed 4% on a $63 billion financing deal for Anthropic, Nvidia added 0.9%, and CoreWeave jumped 7.9%. Boeing fell 10.7% after a larger-than-expected quarterly loss.
Economic Data and Commodities
U.S. consumer confidence improved in October against expectations of further weakening. Treasury yields held steady ahead of the Federal Reserve's rate decision. Brent crude rose 0.4% to $109.82 a barrel, U.S. crude gained 0.5% to $100.37. The dollar rose to 157.99 yen while the euro slipped to $1.1124.
