A currency dealer monitors exchange rates in front of a big screen showing South Korea’s benchmark stock index (C) and the Korean won/USD exchange rate (R) in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on April 9, 2025.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
South Korea and Japan stocks hit record highs Wednesday amid gains in the region, after a tech-driven rally on Wall Street that was fueled by easing concerns around artificial intelligence-led disruption to select industries.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped over 1.4% to a fresh high, while the Topix added 0.3%.
Similarly, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.72% to breach the 6,000 mark for the first time. Index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose 0.6% and 0.88%, respectively.
The small-cap Kosdaq added 0.16%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.13%.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index rose 0.39%, while mainland’s CSI 300 added 0.49%.
Taiwan’s benchmark stock index rose 1.8% to a record high for the fifth straight session.
Bitcoin jumped about 2%, back to $65,000 levels after sliding below $63,000 briefly on Tuesday.
“The global economy appears to be on slightly firmer footing as the effects of fiscal and monetary policy continue to support activity. Financial markets, however, have struggled to establish a clear direction amid several headwinds,” BMI said in a report on Wednesday, in reference to the AI-driven whipsaws lately in addition to heightened geopolitical risks.
“We assign a 50% probability to a US-led military attack on Iran, which is contributing to an elevated risk premium in oil prices and, to some extent, US dollar strength,” BMI’s analysts said.
Investors are also assessing U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
“We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: we will never have a nuclear weapon. My preference is to solve this through diplomacy,” Trump said during the address.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 0.72% at $66.1 per barrel, while Brent Crude futures rose 0.73% to $71.29 per barrel.
Overnight in the U.S., equities rose, led by gains in Advanced Micro Devices and software stocks. Shares of AMD jumped 8.8% after Meta Platforms announced a multiyear deal with the semiconductor company.
The new partnership entails deploying up to 6 gigawatts of AMD’s graphics processing units for AI data centers. Meta will also invest in AMD through a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million shares of the chipmaker.
The move comes a week after Meta said it’s using millions of Nvidia chips in its data center buildout. Shares of the AI chip darling rose 0.7%.
The S&P 500 advanced 0.77% to close at 6,890.07, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.04% and settled at 22,863.68.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 370.44 points, or 0.76%, and ended at 49,174.50. The 30-stock index was supported by a nearly 2% rise in Home Depot shares after the company’s earnings beat expectations for the first time in a year. IBM shares, which tumbled in the prior trading day as a result of aforementioned AI fears, also added to the Dow’s gains.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
