Landscape of Songdo International City. Incheon, South Korea.
Photograph By Kangheewan. | Moment | Getty Images
Asia-Pacific markets were set to open mostly higher Wednesday after Wall Street rose on the back of a tech rally, led by chipmaker Nvidia.
Shares in the artificial intelligence darling advanced nearly 3%, extending Monday’s gains and driving Nvidia’s market-cap past Microsoft’s for the first time since January. Chip companies Broadcom and and Micron Technology rose more than 3% and 4%, respectively.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was set to open higher, with the futures contract in Chicago at 37,700 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 37,690, against the index’s Tuesday close of 37,446.81.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood at 23,397, pointing to a weaker open compared to the HSI’s last close of 23,512.49.
Australian markets are likely to open higher, with futures tied to the S&P/ASX 200 at 8,513, compared to the benchmark’s last close of 8,466.07. Economists polled by Reuters expect the country’s GDP for the first-quarter of 2025 — due later in the day — to rise 1.5% year on year, from 1.3% in the previous quarter.
Investors will be keeping a watch on South Korean markets which will resume trade after opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung was elected president.
U.S. futures were little changed after Wall Street rose on a tech rally and a better-than-expected jobs report showing that the U.S.’ labor market is holding up despite concerns of risks stemming from tariffs.
Overnight stateside, the broad-based S&P 500 index added 0.58% to close at 5,970.37, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 214.16 points, or 0.51%, ending at 42,519.64. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.81% and settled at 19,398.96.
— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han and Sean Conlon contributed to this report.