Asian Stocks Gain, Aussie Dollar Rises on CPI Beat: Markets Wrap

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained the most in a month, with benchmarks from Hong Kong to Japan and South Korea recording gains. The region’s chip-related stocks tracked the strength in their American peers. US futures also advanced.

The Australian dollar climbed 0.5% versus a broadly weaker greenback after a hot inflation print pointed to sticky local price pressures and reinforced the case for the central bank to hold rates at a 12-year high. The South Korean won led the gains in Asian currencies. Treasuries were largely steady.

In addition to the strong performance of the US tech giants, weakness in measures of business activity in the world’s largest economy also helped keep alive forecasts for Federal Reserve policy easing this year. Like on Wall Street, the focus is also on tech earnings in Asia as the region has entered its busiest week for corporate results.

“We’ve seen a nice bounce on Wall Street ahead of Big tech earnings, and that should filter through to Asian equity markets today,” said Matt Simpson, a senior market strategist at City Index Inc. “I’d stop short of calling it a risk-on rally at this stage, although there is some relief that the ECB and BOE seem happy to ‘decouple’ from the Fed.”

The S&P 500 notched its best back-to-back rally in two months. Nvidia Corp., the poster child of the artificial-intelligence boom, led a surge in chipmakers. Texas Instruments Inc. gave a bullish revenue forecast — a good sign for the chip industry that may help lift Asian producers on Wednesday.

Oil held a gain as an industry report showed shrinking US crude stockpiles and traders tracked progress toward fresh sanctions against Iran. Gold edged lower.

Elsewhere, the yen remained a whisker away from the key 155 level to the dollar, with a former top Japanese foreign exchange official warning the country is on the brink of currency intervention.

In the corporate world, Silchester International Investors, a London-based firm that has advocated for corporate change in Japan, disclosed it has taken a stake in Nikon Corp., pushing the shares up by the most in almost three years.

Earnings on Watch

In late US hours, Tesla Inc. soared as the electric-vehicle giant struck an upbeat tone despite a sales miss, the first of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps to report. The stock halted a seven-day plunge, climbing alongside other members of the group.

Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson said the bar is high for US firms to deliver on earnings, particularly for megacap technology names, which face tough comparisons from the growth they showed last year.

Besides Tesla, Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. are also due to report earnings this week. Profits for the “Magnificent Seven” group — which also includes Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Nvidia Corp. — are forecast to rise about 40% in the first quarter from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data.

The group of tech megacaps is crucial to the S&P 500 since the companies carry the heaviest weightings in the benchmark. After this year’s advance, valuations have gotten lofty. After the latest selloff, the Magnificent Seven still traded at a combined 31 times forward earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.