Asia-Pacific equities edged higher in early trading on Tuesday, extending momentum from Wall Street’s record-setting session, as enthusiasm over artificial intelligence continued to buoy investor sentiment.
By 11:40 am AEST (1:40 am GMT), Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.04%, while South Korea’s Kospi 200 added 0.2%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 remained closed for a public holiday.
In India, technology stocks are expected to stay in focus after declines on Monday, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new $100,000 fee for H-1B visas.
The visas, intended for high-skilled foreign workers, were largely granted to Indian nationals in 2024, accounting for 71% of the nearly 400,000 issued, according to U.S. government data.
Among data releases, Australia’s business activity slowed in September as the S&P Global manufacturing and services PMIs eased to 51.6 and 52.0, respectively, with weaker new orders and exports dragging optimism to a one-year low, though hiring remained resilient.
Singapore is set to publish its August inflation report later in the day, a key regional data release for investors.
The moves mirrored overnight gains in New York, where all three major United States benchmarks closed at record highs. The Dow rose 0.1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.4%, and the Nasdaq added 0.7%, with technology shares leading the charge.
Nvidia climbed nearly 3.9% after announcing a US$100 billion investment in OpenAI to build out data centre capacity, sparking broad optimism across the tech sector.
On commodities markets, Brent crude eased 0.2% to US$66.57 a barrel, while gold surged $61.38, or 1.7%, to a record US$3,746.36 per ounce.
Chinese markets also firmed, with the Shanghai Composite advancing 0.2% to 3,828.6 and the CSI 300 up 0.5% to 4,522.6.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, however, slipped 0.8% to 26,344.1. India’s BSE Sensex dropped 0.6% to 82,160.0.
In Europe, markets ended Monday’s session mixed. London’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% to 9,226.7, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.5% to 23,527.1 and France’s CAC 40 eased 0.3% to 7,830.1.
