Shares rallied Thursday across Asia, tracking gains on Wall Street after pressure from the bond market eased and oil prices fell back.
The advance was also powered by a stronger-than-expected quarterly report from chipmaker Nvidia, whose profit rocketed more than 200% higher in the February-April quarter from a year earlier, while revenue jumped 85%.
Nvidia has been one of the biggest beneficiaries from the boom in artificial intelligence, thanks to powerful demand for its high-end AI chips. Its shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday before its earnings report was released, but they fell 1.3% in afterhours trading after the announcement.
South Korea’s Kospi soared 6.7% to 7,688.43, helped by strong buying of technology shares such as Samsung Electronics, which gained 6.3%. Shares in SK Hynix, a computer chipmaker partnering with Nvidia, surged 9.5%.
Taiwan’s Taiex, also heavily weighted toward technology shares, gained 3.3% as major chipmaker TSMC’s stock gained 2.3%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.5% to 61,877.89.
Chinese markets showed more modest gains, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.2% to 25,702.46, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.4% to 4,179.16.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 picked up 1.3% to 8,606.70.
Oil prices edged higher early Thursday, a day after Brent crude dropped 5%. Brent, the international standard, gained 48 cents to $105.50 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude added 52 cents to $98.78 per barrel.
Brent remains well above its roughly $70 level from before the war with Iran. Prices have been yo-yoing on rising and falling hopes that the United States and Iran can reach an agreement to allow oil deliveries to fully resume from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide.
On Wednesday, U.S. stocks bounced back, with the S&P 500 gaining 1.1% for its first rise in four days to close at 7,432,97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.3% to 50,009.35 and the Nasdaq composite rallied 1.5% to 26,270.36.
Stocks got a lift from easing yields in the bond market, as the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.67% late Tuesday. That’s a significant move for a market that measures things in hundredths of a percentage point.
The 10-year Treasury yield had been rising from less than 4% before the war with Iran began, along with other government bond yields around the world, because of worries that the fighting will keep oil prices high, among other factors. Inflation concerns reduce the chances the Federal Reserve will cut rates this year and raise risks that that world central banks may have to raise rates in 2026.