Tokyo, Oct 7 (AP) Asian shares were mostly higher on Tuesday in quiet holiday trading, while Japan's benchmark rose to new records on hope for more government spending and lower taxes under Japan's first woman prime minister.
US futures slipped, and oil prices rose. Markets in mainland China and South Korea were closed.
Over the weekend, Japan's ruling Liberal Democrats chose conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi as their leader, likely making her the country's first woman prime minister. That pushed the Nikkei 225 index up nearly 5 per cent on Monday.
The Nikkei 225 added 0.3 per cent in afternoon trading to 48,083.08.
The ruling Liberal Democrats need coalition partners to stay in power, and politicians are manoeuvring ahead of a vote in the lower house of parliament later this month. It's unclear how aggressively Takaichi can push her agenda to boost Japan out of its economic doldrums, given that she faces opposition from within her own party as well as others.
But investors have jumped in, expecting Takaichi, an admirer of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to adopt market-boosting policies.
Elsewhere in the region, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3 per cent to 8,956.80. In Taiwan, the Taiex jumped 1.7 per cent. Other markets in Southeast Asia were higher.
On Monday. Wall Street kept setting more records, buoyed by enthusiasm over artificial intelligence.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.4 per cent to set an all-time high, closing at 6,740.28. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent to 46,694.97, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7 per cent to its own record, ending at 22,941.67.
Advanced Micro Devices helped lead the way and soared 23.7 per cent after announcing a deal where OpenAI will use its chips to power AI infrastructure. As part of the deal, OpenAI could own up to 160 million shares of AMD if it hits certain milestones.
The frenzy around AI is a key reason Wall Street has been hitting record after record, though that's also raising worries that prices have potentially shot too high. Much of the furore around AI in the last couple of weeks has come from OpenAI, which has quickly grown into a USD 500 billion company. It's been announcing deals with businesses around the world to develop more AI infrastructure.
Another chip company, Nvidia, announced a deal last month where it would invest USD 100 billion in OpenAI as part of a partnership, creating criticism that the AI investment pipeline was beginning to appear like a circle. Nvidia slipped 1.1 per cent following the AMD announcement. Because it's the most valuable stock on Wall Street, Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500.
Outside of tech, Comerica jumped 13.7 per cent after Fifth Third Bancorp agreed to buy it in an all-stock deal valued at USD 10.9 billion. The combination would create the country's ninth-largest bank. Fifth Third's stock fell 1.4 per cent.
Tesla rose 5.4 per cent after social-media postings by the electric-vehicle maker hinted at a possible product unveiling on Tuesday.
Verizon Communications fell 5.1 per cent after the telecom giant replaced its chief executive. Dan Schulman, a director at the company and former CEO of PayPal, is taking over for Hans Vestberg.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, trading was relatively quiet as the stock market continues to largely ignore a US government shutdown. Past federal government closures have had minimal effect on the stock market or on the economy. Investors are betting something similar will happen again.
“It's as if traders are watching the government drama like a rerun, confident that the ending never really changes,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.16 per cent from 4.13 per cent on late Friday.
In other dealings early Tuesday, benchmark US crude rose 16 cents to USD 61.85 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 17 cents to USD 65.64 a barrel.
The US dollar edged up to 150.49 Japanese yen from 150.35 yen. The euro cost USD 1.1695, down from USD 1.1714.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
