Asia: Stocks follow US gains, Nvidia probe looms

[HONG KONG] Asian stocks opened higher following Friday’s (Nov 6) gains in US equities, though advances were tempered by concern over an investigation involving Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.7 per cent, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average rising 1.9 per cent. A gauge of US semiconductor shares jumped 4.2 per cent on Friday as speculation about possible tighter Democratic Party regulation of the artificial intelligence industry eased. 

Equity-index futures for the Nasdaq 100 Index dropped as much as 1 per cent after Nvidia’s board said it was launching an investigation into whether Huang had been targeted in a foreign espionage plot following his admission that he was unfaithful to his wife.

Brent crude declined 0.4 per cent to around US$97.90 a barrel after US President Donald Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he will order further strikes on Iran if progress is made in talks over its nuclear programme and the reopening the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reported.

The dollar weakened against most of its Group-of-10 peers, while New Zealand’s currency strengthened following a national election over the weekend. Bitcoin advanced 1.3 per cent to trade close to US$75,000.

“The Nvidia honey trap will weigh on Asian markets to kick off the week,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at AT Global Markets. “It just creates huge uncertainty over what happens over Nvidia which is one of, if not the biggest, AI company out there.”

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The probe into Huang threatens to further dent already-fragile risk appetite after a rout in richly valued technology shares pushed Japanese and Taiwanese stocks into technical bear markets last week and sent a gauge of global equities to a six-month low. Investors are also assessing the US midterm results and their implications for fiscal policy, regulation and growth.

In Asia, Chinese consumer and producer price data Monday will offer the next read on the health of the world’s second-largest economy. Inflation may have picked up in October because of higher energy costs, according to Bloomberg Economics.

Attention now turns to US inflation data Tuesday for clues on the rate outlook, with traders assigning an almost 80 per cent probability of a hike by year-end. 

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“History is awash with examples of what – ex post – look like reckless risk-taking, and the verdict on AI is still out,” Barclays strategists led by Themistoklis Fiotakis wrote in a note to clients.

“That said, solid growth momentum and the likely extension of the capex cycle without massive downward revisions make us inclined to buy any dip in the dollar.” BLOOMBERG