Tokyo (awp/afp) – Asian stock markets climbed on Tuesday, driven by a cautious renewed optimism about Donald Trump’s future customs measures and by the surge in semiconductor-related stocks in the wake of Wall Street.
Chips celebrating, Nvidia scrutinized at CES
After a surge in “tech” stocks on Monday on Wall Street, the shares of groups linked to semiconductors jumped on Tuesday in Asia as the boss of the American chip giant Nvidia, Jensen Huang, made highly anticipated announcements, noted the experts from the broker IwaiCosmo.
While the group’s stock has just reached a new record high in New York, Mr. Huang unveiled new products linked to artificial intelligence (AI) at the CES consumer tech show in Las Vegas: cards graphics for video games, servers, components for Toyota autonomous cars…
Another factor for optimism: Microsoft announced on Monday $80 billion in investments over one year to build data centers necessary for the deployment of generative AI models.
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Disco Corp (+7.50%), Advantest (+4.71%) and Screen Holdings (+5.14%) soared together, while Tokyo Electron, which supplies Nvidia with equipment manufacturing, ended up 11.24%.
In Taiwan, electronics giant Foxconn (Hon Hai), partner of Nvidia, and sophisticated semiconductor specialist TSMC both jumped more than 3% before limiting their gains.
Cautious optimism about Trump
The European and American stock markets jumped on Monday after information from the Washington Post according to which Donald Trump would consider a more limited increase in American customs tariffs than expected, restricted to certain sectors – which would mitigate the economic impact.
The Republican president-elect, who will take office on January 20, vigorously denied the article, which he called “fake news.”
This did not, however, curb investors’ appetite for risky assets, including the stock markets, on Tuesday in Asia.
On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the flagship Nikkei index climbed 1.97% to 40,083.30 points, and the broader Topix index rose 1.10% to 2786.57 points.
However, trade should remain volatile: Washington’s rejection of the proposed acquisition of US Steel by Nippon Steel (-1.51% in Tokyo) shows the importance of “political issues”, noted Tokai Tokyo experts.
“It should be borne in mind that the shares of groups subject to high risks of increased customs duty rates could continue to fluctuate unstable,” they added.
The dollar recovers, the yen at its lowest in six months
The dollar fell on Monday after the publication of the Washington Post: if customs duties are not as high as expected, the euro and the yen may not be as negatively affected as feared, and American inflation will not increase. would not accelerate as much — enough to lead to more rapid cuts in Fed rates, making the greenback less profitable.
However, with Mr. Trump’s denial, the American currency was trying to recover in Asian trade: around 06:30 GMT, the greenback climbed 0.13% against the Japanese currency, to 157.81 yen per dollar. dollar.
The Japanese currency even fell to its lowest level in six months, at 158.42 yen: it was weakened by statements from the Governor of the Bank of Japan, Kazuo Ueda.
The latter confirmed that the monetary institution would only continue to tighten its policy if economic activity improved – maintaining uncertainty over future increases in extremely low Japanese rates.
Tencent and CATL plunge
The shares of Chinese technology giant Tencent fell by more than 7.3% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange around 06:30 GMT after its inclusion on an American list of “Chinese military companies”.
The Chinese battery manufacturer CATL, also placed on the list of the American Department of Defense, lost 2.6% after dropping more than 5% at the opening.
At the same time, the Hong Kong Hang Seng index lost 1.82% to 19,299.78 points. In a volatile market, the Shanghai composite index gained 0.54% and that of Shenzhen 1.33%, while the authorities are increasing the number of signals to reassure investors.
On the oil market around 06:30 GMT, the price of a barrel of American WTI lost 0.14% to $73.46, and that of Brent from the North Sea lost 0.05% to $76.26.
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