Asian stocks jump as Kospi adds 3.9% and oil's slide cools inflation fears
Asian equities climbed on Tuesday, with South Korea's Kospi Index jumping 3.9% to lead regional gains, after the S&P 500 posted its biggest rally since April 8 and a gauge of US chipmakers surged nearly 7%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 and Taiwan's benchmark followed the Kospi higher, and a broader gauge of Asian equities rose 2%, while futures for US benchmarks were little changed as of 10.19am Tokyo time. The advance came even as Nvidia Corp shares slid 4.3% amid a probe into chief executive officer Jensen Huang following his admission of an affair with a woman identified in reports as a suspected Chinese spy.
The rebound follows a turbulent week in which chipmakers were sold off on concerns that a Democratic sweep of Congress in the midterms would bring tighter regulation of the artificial intelligence industry. Oil's steady decline has helped temper inflation fears: Brent slipped further on Tuesday after settling below US$93 a barrel in the previous session, down almost 6%, as President Donald Trump said further strikes on Iran would not be necessary while the US remains "locked and loaded".
"The sharp drop in oil prices has given markets some much-needed breathing room," said Dilin Wu, a strategist at Pepperstone Group. "Investors are also buying back into stocks after last week's brutal selloff. We still need to see whether buying interest can hold up." Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi of the UBS Chief Investment Office said the tech selloff looked like a reset rather than the start of a structural downturn in the AI investment cycle, though risks from concentrated positioning and elevated expectations remain.
Investors will watch October US consumer prices data due Tuesday, expected to show smaller increases than in September. "We continue to see economic conditions as supportive of corporate fundamentals," said Brock Weimer at Edward Jones, recommending an overweight allocation to equities relative to fixed income. In digital assets, bitcoin rose 0.1% to US$75,031.32 and ether was little changed at US$2,126.18, while spot gold slipped 0.2% to US$4,131.19 an ounce.
What it means for Pakistan: For Pakistani investors, the session offers little direct relief: bitcoin's move to about US$75,031 was a 0.1% gain, and the risk appetite driving Asian equities has not translated into a digital-asset rally. Pakistan's virtual asset market remains small and largely retail, with the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority still building out its licensing framework, so swings in global tech and AI stocks reach local crypto holders mainly through sentiment rather than capital flows. A sustained oil decline would matter more directly, easing import costs and inflation pressure that feed into the rupee and the State Bank's rate decisions.
