Stock markets across Asia mostly advanced on Friday, taking their cue from a fresh record close for the Dow on Wall Street, as some of the AI-linked shares battered in this week's sell-off found their feet again while others kept falling.
The volatility was calmer than the heavy selling seen a day earlier, when worries about stretched technology valuations sent semiconductor shares tumbling across the region.
At the time of writing, South Korea's Kospi led the bounce, climbing over 4% to recoup part of the nearly 8% plunge it suffered on Thursday. Samsung Electronics, the country's largest company and a major chipmaker, jumped 7%, while smaller memory rival SK Hynix rose 4.9%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1%, helped by a 6.6% leap in memory maker Kioxia, although chip-equipment supplier Tokyo Electron slipped 2.5%.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.7% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.7%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.3% and Taiwan's Taiex bucked the trend, easing 0.6%.
European Markets Open Flat
As for European markets, both the Euro Stoxx 50 and the broader pan-European Stoxx 600 opened within a 0.3% range. The UK's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX 30, France's CAC 40 and Italy’s FTSE MIB all traded between 0.1% and 0.3% higher. Spain's IBEX 35 led the pack and rose about 0.4%.
European investors are watching the same signals as their Asian counterparts: a softer US labour market and falling oil prices. Data released Thursday showed US employers added 57,000 jobs last month, well below the 100,000 forecast and a slowdown on May. A cooler jobs market could ease inflation pressure and, with oil back below its pre-war levels, may lessen the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates repeatedly this year—an outcome investors would welcome.
This transatlantic divergence in labour markets is notable. As we reported in Transatlantic Jobs Divergence: US Hiring Slumps as Eurozone Unemployment Stays at Record Low, the eurozone's unemployment rate remains at a record low, contrasting with the US slowdown.
Meanwhile, the AI trade remained under strain. Micron gave up an early gain to fall 5.5%, a day after a 10.6% slump, while Lam Research sank more than 10% and Nvidia, now worth close to $4.7 trillion, edged 1.4% lower. Crypto-linked shares also firmed as Bitcoin rose about 2%, lifting Robinhood and Coinbase alongside it.
The broader picture is one of cautious optimism tempered by sector-specific jitters. As we noted in Asian Tech Stocks Tumble as Chip Sell-Off Spreads; European Markets Flat Ahead of US Jobs Data, the chip sell-off has been a recurring theme this week. For now, the Dow's record provides a floor, but the semiconductor sector's volatility suggests the rally may be fragile.
