Japan’s Nikkei 225 pared gains to close flat at 47,950.88, after hitting a record high earlier Tuesday for the second straight session.
The index was lifted by a tech rally on Wall Street following a major deal between OpenAI and AMD — seen as one of the most direct challenges yet to chipmaker giant Nvidia.
Chip-related stocks on the Nikkei 225 saw volatile trading. Shares of Advantest pared earlier gains to rise 0.64%, while Tokyo Electron and Lasertec reversed course to plunge 1.57% and 5.01% respectively. Renesas Electronics advanced 3.09%. Shares of wire and cable firm Fujikura jumped over 5%.
The Nikkei 225 hit a fresh high Monday after Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected staunch conservative Sanae Takaichi as its new leader Saturday, positioning her to become the country’s first female prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Topix index closed flat at 3,227.91.
Japanese Government Bond yields rose to all-time highs Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year JGB rose by 2 basis points to 1.694% to reach the highest level since July 2008, while the 20-year JGB added nearly 4 basis points to hit 2.734%, the highest point since 1999. The yield on the 30-year JGB added more than 4 basis points to 3.333%, an all-time high.
One basis point is equal to 0.01%, and yields move inversely to prices.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.11% to 150.49 against the greenback, falling for a fourth straight session. The currency plunged nearly 2% in the previous session.
Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 fell 0.27% to 8,956.8, extending losses from the previous session.
Chinese, Hong Kong and South Korean markets are closed for the holidays.
U.S. equity futures were slightly lower in early Asian hours Tuesday after the major key benchmarks hit fresh records Monday stateside.
Overnight, the S&P 500 gained 0.36% to end the day at a fresh record for the 32nd time this year. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.71% to finish at 22,941.67, after notching its 31st all-time high of 2025.
Shares of AMD skyrocketed almost 24% to boost both indexes after the company announced a deal with OpenAI, which could see the latter take a 10% stake in the chipmaker.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, fell 63.31 points, or 0.14%, to close at 46,694.97, weighed down by a decline in shares of Sherwin-Williams and Home Depot.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh, Sean Conlon and Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
Source: CNBC