Asia-Pacific markets opened mixed on Thursday as investors assessed a range of regional economic data and corporate results.
By 11:55 am AEDT (12:55 am GMT) Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined by 0.3%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose by 0.1%, and South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.1%.
Among data releases, South Korea’s economy grew by 1.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, below expectations of 1.4% and marking its slowest growth since the second quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory chipmakers, posted record quarterly earnings, driven by strong demand for high-bandwidth memory that supports artificial intelligence applications.
The company reported quarterly revenue of 19.77 trillion won (A$21.93 billion), while operating profit came in at 8.08 trillion won (A$8.96 billion)
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan begins its two-day policy meeting, with Governor Kazuo Ueda expected to signal potential interest rate hikes on Friday.
In the United States, all three major stock indices advanced overnight. The S&P 500 rose by 0.6%, closing at 6,086.4 after reaching an intraday record high of 6,100.8. The Nasdaq Composite surged by 1.3% to 20,009.3, driven by strong performances from technology stocks, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3%, ending at 44,156.7.
The Dow’s performance was supported by Procter & Gamble, which rose by 1.9% following strong earnings.
The U.S. stock rally was further supported by gains in AI-related stocks after leaders from SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI, alongside President Trump, pledged $500 billion for artificial intelligence infrastructure investments in the U.S. Nvidia and Microsoft both rose by more than 4%, while ARM saw a significant 16% surge. Netflix gained 9.7% after reporting strong earnings, while Procter & Gamble added 1.9%.
However, Johnson & Johnson saw a decline of 1.9% due to a less-than-expected sales outlook.
In global markets, the Shanghai Composite and CSI 300 in China dropped by 0.9% apiece, closing at 3,213.6 and 3,797, respectively.
The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong lost 1.6%, closing at 19,778.8.
In contrast, India’s BSE SENSEX rose by 0.7%, ending at 76,405.
European stocks closed on a positive note, with Germany’s DAX rising by 1% to 21,254.3, and France’s CAC 40 adding 0.9% to 7,837.4. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 remained unchanged at 8,545.1.
