Australia
Matteo Colombo | Digitalvision | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets closed mixed as auto and tech stocks rose after Nvidia announced robust revenue forecast for its key chips, and partnerships with carmakers from the region.
Memory maker Samsung Electronics, a decades-old partner of Nvidia gained 2.76%. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker and manufacturer of Nvidia’s advanced AI GPUs, rose 1.36%.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects purchase orders between Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips to reach $1 trillion through 2027 at Nvidia’s annual developer conference on Monday.
SK Hynix, however, reversed course to drop 0.41%.
Shares of automakers Hyundai Motor, Nissan Motor and Isuzu, as well as China’s BYD and Geely rose after Nvidia announced it was partnering with these companies for its autonomous vehicle development business.
Hyundai Motor advanced 3.16%, while Nissan Motor and Isuzu rose over 1.19% and 1.43%, respectively. BYD added 1.18% and Geely gained 4.61%.
Investors also assessed Iran war developments, with U.S. President Donald Trump looking to delay his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping by “a month or so” due to the Middle East conflict. Trump was expected to travel to China at the end of March.
International benchmark Brent crude gained 3.43% to $103.65 per barrel, while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate rose 3.85% to $97.08 per barrel as of 2:32 a.m. ET.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.36% to close at 8,614.3. Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time to 4.1%. The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia’s inflation stays above the central bank’s upper limit of 3%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed flat at 53,700.39, while the Topix jumped 0.45% to 3,627.07. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.63% to end the trading day at 5,640.48, while the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.12% to 1,136.94.
Hong Kong Hang Seng index rose 0.13% to 25,868.54, while mainland China’s CSI 300 lost 0.73% to 4,637.44.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 46 points, or 0.1%. S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures declined nearly 0.2%.
Overnight in the U.S., stocks rose while oil prices pulled back as Wall Street tried to recover from another losing week, with investors monitoring the latest developments of the Iran war.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 387.94 points, or 0.83%, closing at 46,946.41. The S&P 500 rose 1.01% to end at 6,699.38, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.22% and settled at 22,374.18.
Meta shares gained more than 2% on a report — which the company has called “speculative” — that it is planning to lay off more than 20% of its workforce. Additionally, Nvidia shares rose more than 1% as its GTC conference kicked off Monday.
—CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie, Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to the report.
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