Manila, Oct 2 (AP) Asian shares advanced on Thursday, tracking Wall Street's rise to records despite the shutdown of the US government.
Technology shares jumped on expectations of higher demand for computer chips due to a partnership between South Korean tech and OpenAI.
US futures and oil prices also rose.
South Korea's Kospi climbed 2.9 per cent to 3,555.63 after Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix announced their agreement with OpenAI to supply its Stargate data hubs with memory chips.
“We expect export growth to remain resilient, led by higher chip prices, which will likely continue to offset the tariff impact on non-chip sectors such as autos,” the Nomura Group said in a commentary.
Shares in Samsung surged 4.6 per cent while SK Hynix's shares soared 10.8 per cent. Taiwan-based chip maker TSMC's shares were up 3.3 per cent, helping lift the Taiex by 1.7 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.3 per cent to 44,675.96, with tech stocks leading gains.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.3 per cent to 27,206.18, while markets in mainland China were closed for an October 1-8 national holiday.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1 per cent to 8,937.10, with gold mining stocks among those leading gains. India's BSE Sensex added 0.9 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India opted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged.
On Wednesday, stocks rose to more records in US trading, though yields sank in the bond market following the latest discouraging signals on the economy.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent to 6,711.20, topping its prior all-time high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1 per cent, to its own record set the day before, closing at 46,441.10. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 per cent to 22,755.16.
“Markets once again proved that they love nothing more than turning a crisis into a stage set for higher prices,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Employers outside the government actually cut 32,000 more jobs than they added in September, according to the survey by ADP Research, with the Midwest particularly hard hit. The survey also revised down its numbers for employment in August, to a loss of 3,000 jobs from a previously reported gain of 54,000.
Usually, traders on Wall Street wait for a more comprehensive US government jobs report to suss out how the job market is doing. The US government gets its data from a larger sample of employers than the ADP survey.
But the next Labour Department report, scheduled for Friday, is likely to be delayed because of the shutdown of the US government that began just after midnight.
The hope on Wall Street has been that the job market will continue to slow just enough to convince the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates, but not by so much that it brings a recession.
That's a delicate balance to achieve, and every economic report from the US government that gets delayed only increases the uncertainty about whether it's possible. Stocks have already run to records on expectations for coming cuts to rates, so a lack of them could send the market lower.
In other dealings on Thursday, US benchmark crude oil added 30 cents to USD 62.08 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, also edged up 30 cents to USD 65.65 per barrel.
The US dollar rose to 147.13 Japanese Yen from 147.08 Yen. The Euro rose to USD 1.1735 from USD 1.1731.
The price of gold fell back after surging to fresh highs. As of early Thursday, it was down USD 6.80 at USD 3,890.70 per ounce. The precious metal, often used as a safe haven for investments in times of uncertainty, has been steadily climbing for months, gaining more than 37 per cent in the past year.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
