Asian Stocks Mixed as Nikkei and KOSPI Hit Record Highs; Australia Slips on Hot CPI
Asian markets traded mixed on Wednesday, as record highs on Wall Street lifted sentiment in Japan and South Korea, while Australian shares fell following stronger-than-expected inflation data that reduced hopes for near-term Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rate cuts.
Investors also remained focused on the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, expected to conclude later in the day with a 25-basis-point rate cut.
Wall Street Gains Lift Asia Ahead of Fed Decision
Overnight, all three major U.S. indexes closed at record highs, though U.S. stock futures were little changed as of 04:45 GMT.
Markets are awaiting Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks for clues on future policy direction and the pace of quantitative tightening.
Nikkei and KOSPI Surge on AI Momentum
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index jumped more than 2% to a record 51,311.47 points, while the broader TOPIX was flat.
Gains were driven by AI-related and chipmaking stocks, boosted by NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), which rose 5% overnight after announcing plans to build seven new AI supercomputers for the U.S. Department of Energy.
South Korea’s KOSPI index climbed 1.7% to an all-time high of 4,078.99 points, supported by SK Hynix (KS: 000660), which surged after reporting record Q3 earnings fueled by demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI servers.
Japanese sentiment was also lifted by a U.S.-Japan rare earths agreement signed during President Donald Trump’s visit to Tokyo.
Trade Optimism Builds Ahead of Trump-Xi Meeting
Attention now shifts to Trump’s visit to South Korea, where he is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to finalize a framework to avoid new tariffs and sanctions.
Trump said he plans to reduce fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods as part of the discussions.
China’s CSI 300 index rose 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.4%.
Hong Kong markets remained closed for a public holiday.
Elsewhere, Singapore’s Straits Times Index fell 0.3%, while India’s Nifty 50 edged up 0.2%.
Australia Falls as Inflation Tops Forecasts
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.9%, underperforming regional peers after third-quarter CPI data came in hotter than expected.
Headline inflation rose 1.3% during the quarter, while the trimmed mean—the RBA’s preferred measure—climbed 1.0%, lifting the annual rate to 3.0%.
The figures pushed back market expectations for a November rate cut, with traders now forecasting the next move closer to year-end.
“Even a February cut is far from certain now, given the size of the upside surprise,” analysts at Westpac wrote in a note.
