A currency dealer monitors exchange rates in front of a big screen showing South Korea’s benchmark stock index (C) and the Korean won\/USD exchange rate (R) in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on April 9, 2025.<\/p>\n
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images<\/p>\n
South Korea and Japan stocks hit record highs Wednesday amid gains in the region, after a tech-driven rally on Wall Street that was fueled by easing\u00a0concerns around artificial intelligence-led disruption<\/a> to select industries.<\/p>\n Japan’s Nikkei 225<\/a> jumped over 1.4% to a fresh high, while the Topix added 0.3%.<\/p>\n Similarly, South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.72% to breach the 6,000 mark for the first time. Index heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics rose 0.6% and 0.88%, respectively.<\/p>\n The small-cap Kosdaq added 0.16%.<\/p>\n Australia’s\u00a0S&P\/ASX 200<\/a> climbed 1.13%.<\/p>\n Hong Kong Hang Seng index<\/a> rose 0.39%, while mainland’s CSI 300 added 0.49%.<\/p>\n Taiwan’s benchmark stock index rose 1.8% to a record high for the fifth straight session.<\/p>\n Bitcoin<\/a> jumped about 2%, back to $65,000 levels after sliding below $63,000 briefly on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The global economy appears to be on slightly firmer footing as the effects of fiscal and monetary policy continue to support activity.\u00a0Financial markets, however, have struggled to establish a clear direction amid several headwinds,” BMI said in a report on Wednesday, in reference to the AI-driven whipsaws lately in addition to heightened geopolitical risks.<\/p>\n “We assign a 50% probability to a US-led military attack on Iran, which is contributing to an elevated risk premium in oil prices and, to some extent, US dollar strength,” BMI’s analysts said.<\/p>\n Investors are also assessing U.S. President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.<\/p>\n “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: we will never have a nuclear weapon. My preference is to solve this through diplomacy,” Trump said during the address.<\/p>\n The U.S. West Texas Intermediate \u200bcrude futures were up 0.72% at $66.1 per barrel, while Brent Crude futures rose 0.73% to $71.29 per barrel.<\/p>\n Overnight in the U.S., equities rose, led by gains in\u00a0Advanced Micro Devices<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0software stocks<\/a>. Shares of AMD jumped 8.8% after\u00a0Meta Platforms<\/a>\u00a0announced a\u00a0multiyear deal with the semiconductor company<\/a>. <\/p>\n The new partnership entails deploying up to 6 gigawatts of AMD’s graphics processing units for AI data centers. Meta will also invest in AMD through a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million shares of the chipmaker.<\/p>\n The move comes a week after Meta\u00a0said it’s using millions<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Nvidia<\/a>\u00a0chips in its data center buildout. Shares of the AI chip darling rose 0.7%.<\/p>\n The\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0advanced 0.77% to close at 6,890.07, while the\u00a0Nasdaq Composite<\/a>\u00a0rose 1.04% and settled at 22,863.68. <\/p>\n The\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0added 370.44 points, or 0.76%, and ended at 49,174.50. The 30-stock index was supported by a nearly 2% rise in\u00a0Home Depot<\/a>\u00a0shares after the company’s earnings\u00a0beat expectations for the first time in a year<\/a>.\u00a0IBM<\/a>\u00a0shares, which\u00a0tumbled in the prior trading day<\/a>\u00a0as a result of aforementioned AI fears, also added to the Dow’s gains.<\/p>\n \u2014CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A currency dealer monitors exchange rates in front of a big screen showing South Korea’s benchmark stock index…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[224565,221163,2473,8073,13213,1246,2202,116,37246,28,122,157,2197,12,213762,213760,213759,8070,5236,18031,221018,214220,53925,223812,53926,223813,117999,224566,214219,3471,221015,112,2195,1536,7173,3487,12662,223326,1866,213761,14454,221016,23681,13212,147571,21,221165,221014],"class_list":{"0":"post-489140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cl26j","9":"tag-lco26n","10":"tag-advanced-micro-devices-inc","11":"tag-asia-economy","12":"tag-asml-holding-nv","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-bitcoin-usd-coin-metrics","15":"tag-breaking-news-markets","16":"tag-broadcom-inc","17":"tag-business","18":"tag-business-news","19":"tag-chicago","20":"tag-crowdstrike-holdings-inc","21":"tag-donald-trump","22":"tag-fidelity-nasdaq-composite-index-track","23":"tag-fidelity-wise-origin-bitcoin-fund","24":"tag-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-etf","25":"tag-hang-seng-index","26":"tag-home-depot-inc","27":"tag-international-business-machines-corp","28":"tag-invesco-db-oil-fund","29":"tag-invesco-qqq-trust","30":"tag-ishares-china-large-cap-etf","31":"tag-ishares-msci-australia-etf","32":"tag-ishares-msci-china-etf","33":"tag-ishares-msci-hong-kong-etf","34":"tag-ishares-msci-japan-etf","35":"tag-ishares-msci-south-korea-etf","36":"tag-ishares-semiconductor-etf","37":"tag-japan","38":"tag-lp","39":"tag-markets","40":"tag-meta-platforms-inc","41":"tag-microsoft-corp","42":"tag-nikkei-225-index","43":"tag-nvidia-corp","44":"tag-osaka","45":"tag-proshares-ultra-bloomberg-crude-oil","46":"tag-south-korea","47":"tag-spdr-dow-jones-industrial-average-etf-trust","48":"tag-spdr-sp-homebuilders-etf","49":"tag-spdr-sp-semiconductors","50":"tag-super-micro-computer-inc","51":"tag-taiwan-semiconductor-manufacturing-co-ltd","52":"tag-technology-select-sector-spdr-fund","53":"tag-united-states","54":"tag-united-states-brent-oil-fund","55":"tag-united-states-oil-fund"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489140","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=489140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}