Asian Stocks Track Wall St Gains Amid Nvidia Report

Hong Kong: Asian stock rose on Friday following Wall Street gain after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they’re making even fatter profits than expected. US futures fell. Geopolitical tensions pushed oil prices higher. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of reaching deeper into Russia.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1% to 38,415.32 after the nation’s inflation data slowed to 2.3% in October from 2.5% in the prior month, reaching its lowest level since January. The readings will be one of the key topics at the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting in December, where some investors anticipate an increase in the short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1% to 8,407.50. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.2% at 2,509.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed less than 0.1% to 19,594.52, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.4% to 3,355.70.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 pulled 0.5% higher to 5,948.71 after flipping between gains and losses several times during the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.1% to 43,870.35, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1% to 18,972.42. Banks, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend to do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way. In the crypto market, bitcoin eclipsed $99,000 for the first time before pulling back toward $98,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s more than doubled so far this year, and its climb has accelerated since Election Day.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to make the country “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. As of early Friday, Asia time, bitcoin was trading at $98,925.87. Nvidia rose just 0.5% after beating analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue yet again, but it was still the strongest force pulling the S&P 500 upward. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts’ expectations due to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology.