{"id":475892,"date":"2026-02-18T13:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475892\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:26:11","slug":"asia-stocks-rise-despite-lingering-ai-worries-oil-down-after-u-s-iran-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/475892\/","title":{"rendered":"Asia stocks rise despite lingering AI worries, oil down after U.S-Iran talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asian\u00a0stocks\u00a0pushed higher on Wednesday despite\u00a0the\u00a0renewed artificial intelligence\u00a0worries<\/a>\u00a0gripping international markets,\u00a0while\u00a0oil\u00a0prices were under pressure after Iran touted progress in nuclear negotiations with the United States.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand dollar sank after the\u00a0central bank<\/a>\u00a0said monetary policy needs to remain accommodative for some time to support the economic recovery.<\/p>\n

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225<\/a> index\u00a0rose 0.93% to 57,090.14, poised to snap a three-day skid, while Australia’s S&P\/ASX200\u00a0was up 0.5%.<\/p>\n

Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korean were among markets closed for Lunar New Year holidays.<\/p>\n

The positive start in Asia followed a\u00a0lackluster\u00a0session on Tuesday on Wall Street as investors grappled with the outlook for the AI boom.<\/p>\n

Concerns\u00a0that\u00a0companies are over-investing, along with\u00a0angst\u00a0about the extent to which the nascent technology could disrupt labor markets, have\u00a0fueled\u00a0investor jitters in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

In the U.S.\u00a0overnight, The Dow Jones Industrial Average\u00a0.DJI\u00a0rose 0.07% to 49,533.19, the S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0was up 0.10% at 6,843.22 and the Nasdaq<\/a> Composite\u00a0gained 0.14% to 22,578.38. The S&P 500 fell 0.88% initially before making up ground to close in positive territory.<\/p>\n

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes\u00a0was flat at 4.054%\u00a0on Wednesday. The 30-year bond\u00a0yield fell 0.4 basis points to 4.6788%.<\/p>\n

“AI uncertainty remains a source of volatility, both in terms of the difficulty in assessing which AI companies will be the winners and losers but also what sort of impact will AI have in other companies and sectors of the economy,” NAB analysts said.<\/p>\n

Brent<\/a>\u00a0and West Texas Intermediate<\/a>\u00a0crude\u00a0oil\u00a0futures were little changed on Wednesday at $67.42 and $62.32 per barrel, respectively, after both slid to close at more than two-week lows in the previous session.<\/p>\n

Following talks in Geneva on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran and Washington reached an\u00a0understanding<\/a>\u00a0on main “guiding principles” towards resolving their longstanding nuclear dispute, easing worries about a military conflict near the Strait of Hormuz that could disrupt global\u00a0oil\u00a0supply.<\/p>\n

Gold<\/a>\u00a0as 0.2% weaker to around $4,867 per ounce and silver<\/a> was down by around the same margin to around $73.30 per ounce.<\/p>\n

“Gold prices dipped as a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on the market, with declining U.S. Treasury yields providing little support,” ANZ analysts said.<\/p>\n

“Investors remained uncertain amid subdued trading in Asia. Prospects of easing geopolitical tension with positive outcomes from the Iran-US talks in Geneva weighed on haven demand for gold.”<\/p>\n

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major peers, was flat in Asia hours at 97.12.<\/p>\n

The traditional safe-haven currency held its ground as geopolitical risks kept markets on edge and investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting, due later on Wednesday, for signals on the path for interest rates.<\/p>\n

The euro\u00a0edged down 0.1% to $1.1844, while sterling stabilised at $1.3563 following a 0.5% slide in the previous session.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand dollar\u00a0slid 0.6% to $0.6014. The Aussie dollar eased 0.2% to $0.7075.<\/p>\n

The yen\u00a0firmed 0.1% to 153.12 per dollar.<\/p>\n

Japan’s annual bond issuance will likely surge 28% three years from now due to rising debt-financing costs, Reuters\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday, citing a finance ministry estimate.<\/p>\n

Japan would need to issue up to 38 trillion yen ($248.3 billion) worth of bonds in the fiscal year starting in April 2029 to fill a hole from expenditures surpassing tax revenues, up from 29.6 trillion yen in fiscal 2026, the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asian\u00a0stocks\u00a0pushed higher on Wednesday despite\u00a0the\u00a0renewed artificial intelligence\u00a0worries\u00a0gripping international markets,\u00a0while\u00a0oil\u00a0prices were under pressure after Iran touted progress in nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,122,63506,124435,17998,7173,117,181577,124084],"class_list":{"0":"post-475892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-news","10":"tag-gold-comex-dec25","11":"tag-ice-brent-crude-oct25","12":"tag-nasdaq-inc","13":"tag-nikkei-225-index","14":"tag-sp-500-index","15":"tag-silver-comex-sep25","16":"tag-wti-crude-sep25"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}