Asian Stocks Climb as Tech Rallies, Nvidia Slips: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Asian shares advanced for the first time in five days as Samsung Electronics Co. averted a strike and helped South Korean equities jump. Nvidia Corp. shares slipped in a lukewarm response to its sales forecast.

MSCI’s regional equities gauge climbed 2.2% as South Korea led the gains with a 5.8% jump. Samsung Electronics rallied as much as 7% to an intraday record after reaching a tentative deal with its labor union. Elsewhere, SoftBank Group shares rose as much as 20% as a digital infrastructure firm that it backs, SB Energy, plans a potential initial public offering in the US. Shares in Japan and Australia also climbed.

The advances in Asia came after President Donald Trump said the US was in the “final stages” with Iran, raising expectations for a near-term restart of energy flows through the critical Strait of Hormuz. That sent oil lower and eased inflation concerns, helping bonds rebound from a selloff.

Even so, a sense of caution crept into markets, with US equity-index futures falling 0.5%. Nvidia slipped 1.3% in extended trading even as revenue from data center operators continued to surge. Crude oil also gave up some of its losses, edging up to near $106 a barrel after a 5.6% drop on Wednesday.

Asian equities are rebounding after four days of losses driven by rising global bond yields and concerns that the AI-fueled equity rally had stretched valuations too far. Investors have also been grappling with inflation risks from elevated oil prices, scaling back bets on interest-rate cuts and reviving speculation that borrowing costs could rise further.

“Everyone wants to see this end, but negotiations so far have been far apart on key issues, with both sides expecting each other to blink first,” said veteran strategist Louis Navellier. “Even if a deal is struck, it may take some time to be sure it won’t be violated for things to fully return to normal.”

The S&P 500 Index rose over 1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.7% on Wednesday. A gauge of chip stocks surged 4.5%.

The firming sentiment helped Treasuries gain across the curve Wednesday, while an index of the dollar edged lower. Traders eased some of their bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by the end of the year. They still anticipate that the central bank’s next move will be a hike, in contrast to the multiple cuts seen before the US attacked Iran in late February.

Iran is reviewing the US’s new draft in response to Tehran’s 14-point proposal and is yet to give an answer, Tasnim reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that Iran has “explored every avenue to avert war,” adding that “all paths remain open from our side.”

Trump also said that a deal will be made or “we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen,” according to a White House pool report.

Despite the equity-market gains on Wednesday, it’s worth noting that it was not the first time optimism took hold even without any visible signs of progress in negotiations between the US and Iran.

“I’d love to believe this, but let’s face it: How many times have we heard this before?” said Win Thin, chief economist at Bank of Nassau 1982, after Trump’s remarks.

Meanwhile, Nvidia’s latest forecast anticipated sales in the three months through July will be about $91 billion, higher than the average analyst estimates of $87 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The world’s most valuable company also dialed up its shareholder rewards, increasing its quarterly dividend to 25 cents a share from a penny. And the chipmaker announced $80 billion in stock repurchases.

“Nvidia delivered another beat, but at this point that’s essentially priced in as it keeps beating quarter after quarter,” Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said in a note. “The lingering question is whether it can convince investors the AI build-out has durability into 2027 and 2028.”

Corporate Highlights:

SpaceX filed publicly for what stands to be the largest-ever initial public offering, revealing billions in losses and the super-voting share plan allowing Elon Musk to keep the company under his control. OpenAI is preparing to file for an initial public offering in the coming weeks and is targeting a public debut sometime in the fall, according to a person familiar with the plan. Intuit Inc. is cutting about 17% of its staff, or about 3,000 workers, a move to trim costs while the financial software company invests in artificial-intelligence products. Lowe’s Cos. reported sales growth in the first quarter that just missed estimates, yet kept its full-year outlook unchanged in the face of higher transportation costs, in part due to productivity boosts from artificial intelligence. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures fell 0.4% as of 9:57 a.m. Tokyo time Hang Seng futures rose 0.7% Japan’s Topix rose 2.1% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.4% Euro Stoxx 50 futures were unchanged Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1628 The Japanese yen was little changed at 158.87 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.8004 per dollar The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.7148 Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin rose 0.4% to $77,942.54 Ether rose 0.3% to $2,141.3 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.59% Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 2.765% Australia’s 10-year yield declined seven basis points to 5.00% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.9% to $99.17 a barrel Spot gold was little changed This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Richard Henderson.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.