Semiconductor shares powered benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul sharply higher on Monday, underscoring how artificial intelligence demand continues to anchor gains in Asian equity markets even as investors elsewhere brace for a potential Federal Reserve rate hike later this month.<\/p>\n
Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1% to close at 66,399.84, while South Korea’s Kospi surged 4.6% to 6,995.39. The rally was led by chipmakers: Samsung Electronics climbed 5.7%, SK Hynix soared 8.1%, and Tokyo Electron added 4.7%. Renesas Electronics rose 3.1% and Rohm gained 7.8%.<\/p>\n
“The AI complex continues to provide the local equity markets with its most dependable growth pulse,” said Stephen Innes, a former trader. “The AI complex is firmly in the leadership seat and reminding investors that, for all the hand-wringing around valuation, the hardware trade is still refusing to roll over.”<\/p>\n
The strength in Tokyo and Seoul contrasted with a more subdued picture across other Asian markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9% to 25,413.12, while the Shanghai Composite was essentially flat at 3,932.70. Australia’s S&P\/ASX 200 edged up less than 0.1% to 9,010.90.<\/p>\n
European shares were little changed in early trading, with France’s CAC 40 inching up less than 0.1% to 8,282.06. Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2% to 25,993.23, and Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.2% to 10,814.01. U.S. futures pointed to a lower open, with Dow futures down 0.3% to 53,273.00. American markets are closed Monday for the Labor Day holiday.<\/p>\n
Energy markets on edge<\/p>\n
Brent crude, the international benchmark, added 4 cents to $96.32 a barrel as tensions in the Strait of Hormuz continued to rattle energy traders. The U.S. military rejected claims that Iran struck an uncrewed American vessel in the waterway, which remains effectively closed, calling the assertion a “total lie.”<\/p>\n
A senior Iranian official said Tehran intends to declare an “exclusion zone” outside the strait, targeting vessels it suspects of trying to transit the area. The move follows U.S. strikes on three Iranian oil tankers, which came in response to Tehran firing ballistic missiles at American warships. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 29 cents to $91.19 a barrel.<\/p>\n
Fed rate decision looms<\/p>\n
Investors are positioning for the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting, which concludes September 16. With inflation still running above 3%, market participants widely expect the central bank to raise interest rates before the end of the year. August inflation data is due September 11.<\/p>\n
The labor market added unexpected pressure to that outlook. Friday’s jobs report showed employers added 162,000 positions last month, a stronger-than-anticipated figure that pushed U.S. Treasury yields higher. The 10-year yield rose to 4.78% from 4.77%.<\/p>\n
Wall Street ended last week in the red, with the S&P 500 falling 0.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.5%, and the Nasdaq composite dropping 0.3%.<\/p>\n
Yen rebound and BOJ focus<\/p>\n
In currency markets, the dollar slipped to 155.95 yen from 156.22 yen, extending a pullback after briefly touching the 160 level last week. The euro strengthened to $1.1634 from $1.1621.<\/p>\n
The yen’s trajectory has become a focal point for Japanese policymakers, with the Bank of Japan’s next policy board meeting scheduled for later this month. Analysts say the market is increasingly pricing in a shift in BOJ policy rather than reacting purely to U.S. economic data.<\/p>\n
“The stronger-than-expected U.S. employment report generated only a limited recovery in the dollar, suggesting that the market is currently responding more strongly to the changing BOJ policy outlook,” said Linh Tran, a market analyst at XS.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Semiconductor shares powered benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul sharply higher on Monday, underscoring how artificial intelligence demand continues…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1300,20071,11988,55466,8,29917,5921,5498,20996,32107,446,52,6851],"class_list":["post-87763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-bank-of-japan","tag-brent-crude","tag-federal-reserve","tag-hang-seng","tag-japan","tag-kospi","tag-nikkei-225","tag-renesas-electronics","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk-hynix","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tokyo","tag-tokyo-electron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}