Asian Stocks to Gain on Tech Optimism, Oil Falls: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks were poised to climb after a tech-fueled rally on Wall Street and a drop in oil prices amid hopes for diplomatic progress in the Iran war.
Equity-index futures for Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia pointed higher, while Japanese markets remained closed for a holiday. Contracts for US benchmarks edged higher after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 posted their best days since early August.
An index tracking technology stocks jumped over 4% as early signs of success for Meta Platforms Inc.’s AI agent revived enthusiasm for the sector. Meta surged 11%, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. topped $1 trillion in market value and the Nasdaq 100 jumped 2.8%.
US oil held its losses after Brent closed 3.4% lower on Monday to settle near $100 a barrel, as signs of increased Saudi exports through the Strait of Hormuz coincided with fresh hopes for diplomacy over the Iran war. The retreat eased inflation concerns, helping push the 10-year Treasury yield five basis points lower to 4.95%. The dollar edged higher.
Asian suppliers of memory chips such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. will be in focus after US semiconductor stocks soared on expectations about Meta’s AI success fueling demand for the chips needed to power such agents. The combination of falling oil prices and renewed enthusiasm for technology shares may give the equity rally further room to run.
“With economic growth resilient and earnings still robust, we believe investors should remain positioned for market upside,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Chief Investment Office. “Exposure to transformational innovation could be a key differentiator in long-term equity performance.”
Investors are also gearing up for this week’s summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, with officials offering upbeat assessments ahead of talks expected to cover AI, trade and investment.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described weekend meetings with China’s top trade negotiator Li Chenggang as “very successful.”
“All eyes will be on the Trump-Xi meeting in Washington on Thursday, with trade, AI and geopolitics seen dominating the agenda,” Roman Ziruk, lead FX strategist at Ebury, wrote in a note. “Given increasing geopolitical uncertainty worldwide, keeping the world’s two dominant economies on speaking terms has rarely mattered more.”
Developments in the Middle East remained firmly in focus as traders assessed whether diplomacy and increased Saudi exports could extend oil’s retreat. Satellite data showed Saudi Arabia’s observed oil loadings from inside the Persian Gulf jumped over the weekend, with the highest number of ships seen at the nation’s main Persian Gulf port since June.
Trump told Fox News he would “probably” be open to meeting his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. His administration has also proposed investing $5 billion in a new fund to help Middle East countries rebuild energy infrastructure damaged in the Iran war, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The risk-on mood also spilled into cryptocurrencies, sending Bitcoin above $87,000 and smaller tokens sharply higher on Monday. Elsewhere, copper extended gains on signs of tightening supply conditions in China.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee warned that the central bank cannot ignore repeated and persistent supply shocks and may need to respond even at the cost of economic hardship.
“Supply shocks have come more frequently, hit harder and lasted longer,” Goolsbee said Monday at an event in London. “And once supply shocks to inflation become persistent, some of the logic behind ‘looking through’ no longer holds.”
Corporate Highlights:
Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced pricing and hardware specifications for the first so-called Googlebooks, marking a push into a high-end laptop market where built-in AI features have become the norm. OpenAI is urging the US to lead an effort with other countries to set standards for cutting-edge artificial intelligence, in response to mounting concerns about the potential harms of the technology. Paramount Skydance Corp. has settled lawsuits brought by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild trade union, a move that will allow the company to close its historic $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. is seeking to raise almost $4 billion of debt to overhaul much of its capital structure, seizing on a box-office recovery to lure investors. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 8:20 a.m. Tokyo time Hang Seng futures rose 0.3% S&P/ASX 200 futures rose 0.3% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was unchanged at $1.1465 The Japanese yen was little changed at 157.34 per dollar The offshore yuan was unchanged at 6.6929 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.7120 Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.5% to $86,536.34 Ether fell 0.2% to $2,777.4 Bonds
Australia’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 5.25% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed Spot gold rose 0.4% to $4,360.50 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
–With assistance from Ruth Carson.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
