A logo of Japan’s high-tech giant Hitachi at an exhibition in Tokyo on October 29, 2013. Hitachi announced its group net profit rose 8.8 percent in the first half of the fiscal year, from a year earlier to 32.77 billion yen as the weaker yen and cost-cutting. AFP PHOTO \/ Yoshikazu TSUNO (Photo credit should read YOSHIKAZU TSUNO\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Shares of Japanese conglomerate Hitachi soared over 9% Friday after it announced late Thursday<\/a> a partnership with OpenAI to build artificial-intelligence infrastructure and data centers globally.<\/p>\n Japan’s Nikkei 225<\/a> climbed 1.57%, while the Topix rose 1.33%.<\/p>\n The country’s unemployment rate rose to 2.6% in August, government data showed<\/a> Friday, higher than the 2.4% expected by economists polled by Reuters and the 2.3% rate in the prior month.<\/p>\n The S&P Global Japan services purchasing managers’ index climbed to 53.3 in September from 53.1 in August, driven by stronger domestic demand amid falling new export business.<\/p>\n “While services companies recorded another month of solid growth, manufacturers reported a steeper decline in output amid weak sales. As a result, the private sector as a whole expanded at the slowest rate since May,” said Annabel Fiddes, economics associate director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.<\/p>\n Australia’s ASX\/S&P 200 rose 0.27%.<\/p>\n Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index<\/a> retreated 0.47%, while the Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.21%.<\/p>\n India’s Nifty 50<\/a> declined 0.16%, while the Sensex index lost 0.36%.<\/p>\n Chinese and South Korean markets were closed for holidays.<\/p>\n U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours after the three leading U.S. indexes closed at record highs as investors shrugged off the U.S. government shutdown.<\/p>\n Investors are waiting to see how long the shutdown will last to assess the gravity of its economic repercussions. Historically, government shutdowns in the U.S. have not been market-moving events.<\/p>\n Overnight, the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0inched up 0.06%, while the\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0climbed more than 78 points, or nearly 0.2%. The\u00a0Nasdaq Composite<\/a>\u00a0rose about 0.4%, powered by a 0.9% gain in\u00a0Nvidia<\/a>\u00a0that propelled the chipmaker to an all-time high. Other chipmakers also gained ground, with Intel and AMD each rising more than 3%.<\/p>\n