Nikkei Jumps 3.4% to 59,411.34 as Asian Tech Stocks Recover
Key Facts
The Nikkei 225 rose 3.4% to 59,411.34 in Tokyo trading on Monday, November 9, leading gains across Asian markets as technology stocks recovered. The Associated Press said trading opened strongly in the Japanese capital, with regional technology stocks benefiting from gains in U.S. artificial intelligence shares on Friday. That followed an earlier selloff in those stocks, linked to concerns that Democratic victories in the midterm elections could slow the buildout of AI data centers, particularly in Texas. The agency did not directly link the Nikkei’s advance to Chinese inflation data released the same day. The session thus reflected a rebound in technology stocks, while Chinese price data offered a mixed picture across food, energy and producer prices.
Chip equipment companies were among the Japanese market’s biggest gainers: Tokyo Electron rose 6.5%, while Advantest gained 5.1% in Monday trading, according to the Associated Press. Those gains fit with broader demand for technology stocks in the region after their U.S. peers rebounded on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in Friday’s session, trimming its weekly loss to 2.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.1%. These moves put Tokyo’s gains in the context of a technology-sector recovery after earlier pressure on AI stocks. They also show that the regional rebound extended beyond Japan’s benchmark to other markets with technology and chip-related companies.
Other Asian benchmarks posted mixed gains during the session: South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.5% to 5,137.22, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2% to 24,525.58, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.4% to 3,663.91, according to the Associated Press. The Kospi’s gains were larger than those of the two Chinese indexes and the Hang Seng, while the Nikkei rose 3.4%. The comparison highlights the breadth of the advance across Asian markets, with a clear difference in its strength in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The agency reported that Friday’s recovery in U.S. technology stocks supported regional tech shares. That coincided with the release of China’s October inflation data, which the agency did not directly link to moves in Japanese or Asian indexes.
In China, the core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.8% year over year in October, but its growth rate slowed by 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That means the annual core reading remained positive while losing some momentum compared with September. Among price components, food prices fell 2.9% year over year, while service prices rose 0.7%. Fresh vegetable prices fell 16.9%, pork prices dropped 8.6% and fresh fruit prices declined 3.8% year over year. The bureau said the decline in food prices lowered the annual consumer price index reading by about 0.49 percentage points, illustrating its effect in limiting the overall index’s rise.
By contrast, gasoline prices rose 22.4% year over year in October, which the statistics bureau estimated added about 0.63 percentage points to the annual consumer price index reading. That contribution shows how higher energy prices partly offset the effect of lower food prices on the index. China’s producer price index rose 5.7% year over year in October, with its growth rate up 0.7 percentage points from September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Month over month, the producer price index rose 0.7%. Prices in the coal mining and washing sector rose 36.6% year over year, one of the most notable sector readings in the producer data. October’s data thus combined limited core inflation growth and falling food prices with an acceleration in producer price inflation.