Asian markets open higher tracking Wall Street AI rally

Asian equities opened higher on Tuesday, according to Mettis Global, as an AI-linked rally on Wall Street pushed major US indices up overnight. Seoul's Kospi climbed 2.20 per cent at the open and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 1.12 per cent. Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.30 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.21 per cent and China's CSI 300 advanced 0.83 per cent, while Japan was shut for a holiday.

Wall Street's previous session was strong: the S&P 500 gained 1.5 per cent, its biggest one-day move since August 4. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2.3 per cent to a fresh closing high, its first since June. CNBC reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 366 points higher, a 0.7 per cent advance. Technology names led, with Meta Platforms up over 11 per cent and Advanced Micro Devices rising about 10 per cent to a $1 trillion market value.

Lower crude prices also helped sentiment, with West Texas Intermediate futures sliding 4.5 per cent to $95.78 a barrel and Brent settling over 3 per cent lower at $100.34. US Treasury yields softened as well, the 10-year yield slipping by over 4 basis points and landing at 4.951 per cent. Attention now turns to a Trump-Xi meeting in Washington later this week, covering AI, tariffs, rare earths and the Iran conflict.