Asian stocks track Wall Street gain with Nvidia report and bitcoin surge

HONG KONG: Asian stock rose on Friday following Wall Street gain after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they’re making even fatter profits than expected.

US futures fell. Geopolitical tensions pushed oil prices higher. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s use this week of American and British missiles capable of reaching deeper into Russia.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1% to 38,415.32 after the nation’s inflation data slowed to 2.3% in October from 2.5% in the prior month, reaching its lowest level since January.

The readings will be one of the key topics at the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting in December, where some investors anticipate an increase in the short-term policy rate to 0.5% from 0.25%.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 1% to 8,407.50. South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.2% at 2,509.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed less than 0.1% to 19,594.52, while the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.4% to 3,355.70.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 pulled 0.5% higher to 5,948.71 after flipping between gains and losses several times during the day. Banks, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend to do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way.

In the crypto market, bitcoin eclipsed $99,000 for the first time before pulling back toward $98,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s more than doubled so far this year, and its climb has accelerated since Election Day. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to make the country “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin.

As of early Friday, Asia time, bitcoin was trading at $98,925.87.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.1% to 43,870.35, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1% to 18,972.42.

Nvidia rose just 0.5% after beating analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue yet again, but it was still the strongest force pulling the S&P 500 upward. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts’ expectations due to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Nearly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 advanced on Thursday, and the gains were even bigger among smaller companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks jumped a market-leading 1.7%.

Bitcoin got a boost after Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Thursday he would step down in January. Gensler has pushed for more protections for crypto investors.

Bitcoin and related investments have a notorious history of big price swings in both directions. MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash expressly to buy bitcoin, saw an early Thursday gain of 14.6% for its stock quickly disappear. It finished the day with a loss of 16.2%.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.43% from 4.41% late Wednesday following some mixed reports on the US economy.

One said fewer US workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that the job market remains solid. Another report, though, said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly shrank. Sales of previously occupied homes, meanwhile, strengthened last month by more than expected.

In energy trading, benchmark US crude gained 17 cents to $70.27 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 13 cents to $74.36 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar fell to 154.33 Japanese yen from 154.52 yen. The euro cost $1.0475, up from $1.0474.

By RSS/AP