Asian markets rebound on tech gains, Wall Street rally

Technology shares drove a rebound in Asian equities on Friday, reversing much of the previous day's steep decline, Mettis Global reported. Japan's Nikkei 225 added more than 1%, while South Korea's Kospi was up 1.22% at the opening bell. Kioxia jumped 6% in Tokyo, and SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics also moved higher in Seoul.

Alibaba rose 3.1% and Tencent gained 2.2% in Hong Kong, adding to the regional upturn. Thursday's broad selloff had been fuelled by anxieties over AI financing, sharper competition and a possible glut of memory chips. On Wall Street, all three major US indexes closed higher that day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading at a gain of about 1.1%.

US technology shares remained under pressure for the week, with Micron Technology heading for a weekly fall of more than 9%. CoreWeave was set for a decline of about 15% over the week, even after recovering on Thursday. Attention also turned to Anthropic's third-quarter revenue of $16.8bn, while US wholesale inflation posted its steepest rise since 2022 amid high energy costs linked to the US-Iran war.