Asia-Pacific markets traded higher on Friday, tracking Wall Street’s sharp rebound as strong earnings from Amazon boosted investor confidence and pushed U.S. technology futures higher.
By 12 pm AEST (2 am GMT), Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was trading 0.4% higher, Japan's Nikkei 225 had climbed 5.1%, and South Korea's KOSPI 200 surged 14.3%.
South Korea’s chip giants led regional gains, with SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics soaring after blockbuster results from Amazon and Microsoft reignited optimism over artificial intelligence spending.
SK Hynix was last trading 21.6% higher, putting it on track for its strongest daily gain on record, while Samsung Electronics jumped 18.7%.
Japanese semiconductor stocks also rallied strongly, with Advantest gaining 17.9% and Tokyo Electron advancing 8.9%.
SoftBank Group, which is viewed as an artificial intelligence proxy due to its ownership of Arm, surged 15.1%.
Economic data from China showed manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in July, ending four consecutive months of expansion as export momentum that supported second-quarter growth began to fade.
The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 49.2 in July from 50.3 in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The reading missed expectations of 50.0 and fell below the 50-point threshold separating expansion from contraction.
In the United States on Thursday, major benchmarks finished higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 1.2%, the S&P 500 gaining 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite advancing 2.8%.
In commodities, ICE Brent crude fell 1.4% to US$86.88 per barrel, while spot gold gained 0.9% to settle at US$4,102.92 per ounce.
Chinese markets ended Thursday mixed, with the SSE Composite Index declining 0.6% to 3,804.7, while the CSI 300 gained 0.7% to 4,549.7.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.2% to 25,858.9, while India’s BSE Sensex advanced 0.4% to 77,928.2.
European markets delivered mixed results on Thursday. The UK’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1% to 10,897.3 despite briefly reaching a record intraday high, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.6% to 25,612.0 and France’s CAC 40 gained 0.9% to 8,485.6.
