TOKYO- MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.07 percent , with a 0.71 percent rise for Taiwan’s stock benchmark countered by losses in Hong Kong.
Japan’s Nikkei share average climbed to the cusp of an all-time peak on Thursday after unexpectedly strong revenue forecasts from US chip designer Nvidia lifted Asian tech stocks.
However, the regional mood was tempered by a retreat in Chinese stocks from multi-month highs reached amid Beijing’s efforts to boost market confidence.
Long-term US bond yields hugged three-month highs while the dollar sagged after minutes from the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting confirmed the view that interest rate cuts would be slow in coming, but weren’t markedly more hawkish that the Fed’s previously expressed views.
The Nikkei 225 share average pushed as high as 38,924.88 for the first time since January 1990 – right when the so-called bubble economy peaked – before entering the midday recess up 1.7 percent from Wednesday at 38,913.84. Its all-time high is 38,957.44 set on Dec. 29, 1989.
The Hang Seng slipped 0.41 percent , threatening to snap a seven-day winning streak. A subindex of tech shares slumped 0.84 percent .
Mainland blue chips oscillated throughout the session between small gains and losses.
Meanwhile, US stock index futures signaled gains, following a mixed session on Wednesday for the main benchmarks. S&P 500 futures rallied 0.75 percent and tech-focused Nasdaq futures jumped 1.39 percent .
Following the closing bell overnight, Nvidia forecast a roughly 233 percent surge in quarterly revenue, sending its shares up some 10 percent after-hours.
The Nikkei has jumped about 16 percent already this year, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rallying some 5 percent each, driven in large part by mammoth expections for artificial intelligence (AI), with Nvidia’s chips at the center of that boom.
“Nvidia’s earnings beat boosted sentiment and eased concerns over stretched valuations, providing room for the AI theme to continue to drive markets,” Saxo Markets analysts wrote in a research note.
The 10-year US Treasury yield eased slightly in Asian time on Thursday to 4.3068 percent , close to the 4.332 percent level marked a week ago and which had not been seen since the end of November.