If Thursday’s shares rally is anything to go by, the world’s stock market seems to have become indifferent to US President Donald Trump’s flip-flop on trade deal deadlines and threats as US tech stocks lifted the Nasdaq to an all-time high, even helping Wall Street regain most of the losses from this week.
South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1 per cent to 3,164.26 after the Bank of Korea kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged and as semiconductor shares rose following Nvidia’s overnight rally on Wall Street.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 per cent to 39,583.78, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.1 per cent to 23,926.09.
The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.4 per cent to 3,505.58, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.6 per cent to 8,589.70.
As oil prices dropped, the dollar showed weakening against the Japanese yen and euro.
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On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent for its first gain this week, remaining near the record it set last week after a better-than-expected US jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, it was the Nasdaq composite, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, that closed 0.9 per cent higher, helping it nudge past its record high set last Thursday.
US-based Nvidia rose 1.8 per cent and became the first public company to exceed USD 4 trillion in value after its share price briefly topped USD 164 each in the early going. Shares in the AI boom poster child were going for around USD 14 per share at the start of 2023.
The tech rally was significant as the Wall Street weighed the latest developments in Trump’s renewed threats of higher tariffs this week on goods imported into the US in hopes of securing new trade pacts with countries. He also extended the deal-finalisation deadline to August 1.
In other dealings on Thursday, benchmark US crude lost 6 cents to USD 68.32 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, shed 8 cents to USD 70.14 per barrel.
The dollar was trading at 146.21 Japanese yen, down from 146.26 yen. The euro rose to USD 1.1736 from USD 1.1723
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