AI Financing Fears Ease, Lifting Asian Tech
TREE NEWS reports: Asian equity markets opened broadly higher on Friday after a reassuring signal on AI infrastructure financing helped Wall Street close in positive territory overnight. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in Stockholm that CoreWeave’s financial position is improving daily and that funding costs are actually falling, adding he does not believe the data-center operator needs a rescue from Nvidia. The comments eased investor anxiety over the sustainability of the AI capital-spending cycle, which had triggered a sell-off in AI-linked assets earlier in the week.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose about 1.7%, while the Topix gained 1.8%. South Korea’s Kospi extended early gains to as much as 3.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.89%. US futures were softer, with Nasdaq 100 futures down roughly 0.5% and S&P 500 futures roughly flat, as investors awaited remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Warsh at an IMF event in Bangkok later Friday for clues on the odds of an October rate hike.
Technology Leads the Rebound
Semiconductors and software drove the region’s advance. In Seoul, SK Hynix climbed 2.22% and Samsung Electronics rose 2.86%. South Korea’s finance ministry said it would strengthen monitoring of market risk factors, describing equity fundamentals as sound and pledging to watch how stock swings spill over into bond, foreign-exchange and short-term funding markets.
In Tokyo, SoftBank Group gained 1.92%, chip-equipment maker Tokyo Electron rose nearly 2%, Advantest added 1.89%, and memory-chip producer Kioxia jumped as much as 6%. Japan’s digital-transformation and IT-services complex was the standout: consultancy BayCurrent surged 17.25% to a record close above 10,000 yen after posting a 28.5% year-on-year rise in first-half operating profit and unveiling a plan to reach 500 billion yen in sales by fiscal 2031, well ahead of expectations. Software testing specialist SHIFT soared 16.52% on strong guidance. The results lifted the entire systems-integration and software-modernization theme, with Nomura Research Institute up 7.09%, Fujitsu up 6.14% and NEC up 4.87%.
Indonesia: The Region’s Biggest Risk
The sharpest move came from Jakarta. MSCI said Indonesia no longer qualifies as an emerging market, raising the prospect of the country being removed from global equity indices. The benchmark index plunged as much as 11% intraday, triggering a 30-minute trading halt, while the rupiah edged lower. Bank Indonesia said it would continue intervening in both offshore and onshore FX markets to stabilize the currency. The 10-year Indonesian government bond yield rose 10 basis points to a two-month high.
Commodities, Currencies and the AI-Dollar Link
The dollar index was little changed after falling 0.3% on Thursday. Even with US September PPI posting its largest monthly gain in four years and retail sales beating expectations — data that would normally support the dollar — safe-haven flows into Treasuries pushed yields lower and weighed on the greenback, as AI-related assets were sold. Analysts noted the dollar has become closely tied to AI capital expenditure: if investors conclude AI investment is peaking, the dollar is likely to suffer first.
Brent crude slipped 0.1% to about $105.78 a barrel, while WTI fell 0.67% to roughly $97.32. Despite the daily decline, oil remained on track for a weekly gain as Middle East supply risks intensified, partly offset by a US emergency reserve release plan. Spot gold edged down about 0.05% to around $4,168 an ounce.
Key Takeaways for Investors
- AI capex sentiment is now a macro variable. A single executive’s comments on a private data-center operator moved Asian equities, and the same theme is transmitting into the dollar. Watch AI financing headlines as a cross-asset risk factor.
- Index-inclusion risk is real and violent. Indonesia’s potential removal from global benchmarks produced a circuit-breaker move in equities and pressure on bonds and the currency. Emerging-market investors should map index-membership risk explicitly.
- Fed communication remains the swing factor. With US inflation data running hot, Chair Warsh’s Bangkok remarks could reset October rate expectations and reverse the risk-on tone.
- Japan’s software theme is broadening. Earnings-driven moves in BayCurrent and SHIFT are pulling the whole IT-services sector higher — a fundamentals story rather than pure beta.
- Oil and gold are being pulled in opposite directions by supply risk and reserve releases, keeping commodities range-bound for now.
